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OLLIE M. JAMES 

(Late a Senator from Kentucky) 

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE 

AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OF THE UNITED STATES 

SIXTY-FIFTH CONGRESS 
THIRD SESSION 



Proceedings in the Senate 
February 2, 1919 



Proceedings in the House 
February 23, 1919 



PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING 



2^^2 6,7 2 




WASHINGTON 
1920 







5, or 'J* 

OGI 25 J923 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page. 

Proceedings in the Senate 5 

Prayer by Rev. Forrest J. Pretlyman, D. D 5 

Memorial addresses of — 

Mr. J. C. W. Beckham, of Kentucky 11 

Mr. John \V. Weeks, of Massachusetts 19 

Mr. Joseph T. Robinson, of Arkansas 22 

Mr. William S. Kenyon, of Iowa 26 

Mr. Charles S. Thomas, of Colorado 33 

Mr. James Hamilton Lewis, of Illinois 37 

Mr. George B. Martin, of Kentucky 45 

Proceedings in the House of Representatives 51 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Coudcn, D. D 51,55 

Memorial addresses of — 

Mr. Ben Johnson, of Kentucky 57 

Mr. Joseph W. Fordncy, of Michigan 60 

Mr. A. B. Rouse, of Kentucky . 67 

Mr. J. Thomas Heflin, of Alabama 71 

Mr. David H. Kincheloe, of Kentucky 81 

Mr. Martin B. Madden, of Illinois 87 

Mr. Swagar Sherlcy, of Kentucky 91 

Mr. Alben W. Barkley, of Kentucky 96 

Mr. Richard W. Austin, of Tennessee 103 

Mr. J. Campbell Cantrill, of Kentucky 105 

Mr. John W. Langley, of Kentucky 100 

Mr. William J. Fields, of Kentucky 112 

Mr. Champ Clark, of Missouri 116 



[3] 




HON. OLLIE M.JAMES 



DEATH OF HON. OLLIE M. JAMES 



Proceedings in the Senate 

Wednesday, August 28, 1918. 
The Chaplain, Rev. Forrest J. Prettyman, D. D., offered 
the following prayer : 

Almighty (iod, in the pursuit of the ideals upon which 
we have founded a Government and in following the lines 
of life laid down for us by our fathers we have been called 
to make a complete surrender of ourselves, of our in- 
terests, of our powers in furtherance of our great spiritual 
democracy. We pray that Thy blessing may be upon us 
as we enter more and more into a world conflict. As we 
lay our fortunes, as we send our boys, as we give our lives 
to the interests of humanity do Thou, O God of us all, 
smile upon us, give us success, and bring us to speedy 
victorj'. 

Again and again we arc called upon to mourn the loss 
of one of our leaders and master spirits. To-day the news 
reaches us of the death of the senior Senator from Ken- 
tucky. This great man so lately stood among us in 
strength and glorj- of young manhood, endowed with 
splendid (jualities of leadership, strong in his friendships, 
loyal to the country, and devoted to the highest ideals of 
our national life. In Thy providence his spirit has been 
called back to God who gave it. 

We thank Thee for all the service he rendered to our 
Government and for the devotion which he manifested in 
the well-being of humanity. Let Thy mcrcj' be with those 
who constitute the inner circle of his family and friends, 
and enable us to perpetuate in our lives all that was best 
in his. 

For Christ's sake. .\men. 

[5] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

Mr. Beckham. Mr. President, it is my sad duty to an- 
nounce to the Senate the death of my distinguished col- 
league, Hon. Olue M. James, which occurred at the Johns 
Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore this morning about 6.30, 
and while it has not been unexpected for some time it 
comes as a great shock to all of us and to all who knew 
him. I am sure, Mr. President, that in my State there is 
universal and jjrofound sorrow, and I feel equally sure 
that here in this body among the Members who have asso- 
ciated with him for nearly six years there is also the deep- 
est sorrow. We shall miss his genial, generous character, 
and among all of the losses which our body has sustained 
in the present Congress none, I am sure, will be felt more 
than that of Senator James. 

It is unfortunate, Mr. President, it seems to us, that we 
can not understand the Divine purpose when a j'oung man 
of his age, in the very prime of his manhood, and at a 
time when his splendid abilities and services were most 
useful to his State and to the Nation, should be taken 
away. 

But it is not now the time to pay full and proper tribute 
to his character and life. Upon another occasion later on 
those of us who knew him so well, who loved and ad- 
mired him, will have the opportunity of doing so. 

I send to the desk, Mr. President, resolutions which I 
ask may be read and adopted. 

The President pro tempore. The Secretary will read the 
resolutions. 

The resolutions (S. Res. 294) were read, considered by 
unanimous consent, and unanimously agreed to, as 
follows : 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Ollie M. James, late a Senator from the 
State of Kentucky. 



[6] 



Proceedings in the Senate 



Resolved, That a committee of 15 Senators be appointed by the 
President pro tempore to take order for superintending the 
funeral of Mr. James, to be held in the city of Marion, Ky. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to 
the House of Representatives. 

Under the second resolution the President pro tempore 
appointed Mr. Beckham, Mr. Simmons, Mr. Williams, Mr. 
Smith of Arizona, l\Ir. Pomerene, Mr. Pittman, Mr. Under- 
wood. Mr. Kendrick, Mr. Penrose, Mr. Borah, Mr. Weeks, 
Mr. Kcnyon, Mr. Fall, Mr. Curtis, and Mr. Harding as the 
connnittcc on the part of the Senate. 

Mr. Pittman. Mr. President, this was the day which had 
been agreed to by the Senate for holding memorial exer- 
cises in respect to the memorj' of the late Senator from 
Nevada, Francis G. Newlands. I, as does every Member 
of the Senate, concur in the sentiments expressed by the 
Senator from Kentuckj' relative to our beloved friend, 
and, of course, in the circumstances it is fit and proper 
that this body shall adjourn in accordance with custom, 
and I have been informed by the Senator from Kentucky 
that he is about to make such a motion. I know that the 
action proposed by the Senator from Kentucky will meet 
witii the entire approval of the family of the late Senator 
and that this custom of the Senate is thoroughly under- 
stood. But before action is taken upon that motion, out 
of respect to the late Senator James, I give notice that on 
Monday morning, immediately after the Senate convenes, 
the memorial exercises in respect to the memory of the 
late Senator Francis Griffith Newlands will be held by 
unanimous consent. 

Mr. Beckham. Mr. President, as a further mark of re- 
spect to the memory of Senator James I move that the 
Senate do now adjourn. 



[7] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Beckham, of Kentucky 

Mr. President: It is a sad and solemn occasion when- 
ever we are gathered here to pay tributes of respect and 
regard to the mcmorj' of one of our departed comrades in 
the membership of this body. 

In the strenuous and feverish times of the last few years, 
engaged as we have been in the most arduous and im- 
portant work, and going out of one session of Congress 
into another without rest or relaxation, we have fre- 
quently, far too frequently it seems to us, been reminded 
of how slight is our hold upon this life, and have been 
called upon to pause in our work and contemplate in 
grief and sorrow the earthly separation from us of one 
of our coworkers in the Senate. Death, which has been 
in these recent years more unsparing and rapacious than 
ever before throughout the world, has not overlooked the 
Members of the Senate in its world-wide harvest, and we 
have severely felt its heavy hand many times upon some 
of our most useful and conspicuous associates here. 

Since I entered the Senate, Mr. President, a little over 
three years ago, of the 96 Members at that time 15 have 
passed away, and I have no doubt that this unusual and 
excessive mortality is in a large measure due to the 
extraordinary and tremendous amount of work that has 
fallen upon tlie Members of Congress in these troublous 
and eventful years of sorrow and death. 

When I came here in December, 1915, my late colleague 
from Kentucky, Ollie M. James, who had been a Member 
of the Senate since March 4, 1913, was one of the most 
striking and pojjular figures in Congress. Of giant phy- 
sique, big of body as well as of mind, in the very flush 

[11] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

and prime of a useful and distinguished life, full of zeal 
and enthusiasm in the public service, for which he was 
so well equipped, he seemed to be the very picture of 
vigorous and robust health; and one who saw him in those 
days could well believe that the ravages of time and old 
age alone could conquer such a specimen of manhood, and 
that there stretched before his ambitious and patriotic 
vision the promise of many more years of valuable serv- 
ice to his countrj'. His strength and vitality seemed to be 
irrepressible; he loved life and his fellow men with boyish 
enthusiasm; and it never occurred to one who saw him 
then that the scythe of the great reaper could be so near 
him. 

But, alas, Mr. President, death is still, as it ever has been, 
cruel and remorseless in the victims it selects It still 
loves a shining mark. It spares neither the young nor the 
old, the weak nor the strong; it strikes down without con- 
cern either the exalted or the lowly. The door of the 
greatest deliberative and most dignified body on earth 
can not any more bar its entrance than can the door of the 
humblest cottage in the land. And now w^e find that our 
friend, in the flower of liis manhood, like a strong young 
oak in the forest singled out by the fierce storm in its 
destructive course, laid low in his earthly career; and we 
are assembled here to-day as his colleagues to render to 
his memorj' in some degree the testimonials of our respect, 
our admiration, and our affection for his many generous 
and noble qualities of heart and mind. 

As one who knew him intimatelj' and well almost since 
his boyhood days, I feel that it is impossible to express in 
the necessarily limited time of this occasion all that might 
be said of him and of his remarkably successful and bril- 
liant career in the public affairs of his State and of his 
countrj-. However, I may be permitted to give briefly 
some of the leading and important events in his 

biography. 

[12] 



Address of Mr. Beckham, of Kentlcky 

Ollie M. James was born in Crittenden County, Ky., 
July 27, 1871. His father, Judge L. H. James, a leading 
lawyer and a highly respected citizen of that county, 
still lives at a venerable and honorable old age, and bears 
in his heart with Christian fortitude and patience the 
deep sorrow of the untimely end of his distinguished 
son, in whose remarkable and creditable success he took 
so much pardonable pride and joy. Senator James's good 
mother, to whom he was so devoted, preceded him to the 
grave less than a year, and was spared the grief which 
came to the surviving members of his family when he 
joined her on the other side. 

He was educated in the public schools of his county, 
and. although he was never a profound student, he early 
manifested tliat quickness of intellect and breadth of 
mind which made up to a large extent what he lacked in 
the opportunities of collegiate training and higher educa- 
tion. In 1887 he was a page in the Kentucky House of Rep- 
resentatives, and it was there that he probably acquired 
that intense interest in political questions which was the 
guiding factor in his life aftei^wards. 

He studied law with his father and was admitted to the 
bar in 1891. .\lthough his practice of the profession was 
frequently interrupted by his activity in campaigns and 
his participation in political affairs, he demonstrated a 
broad and keen comprehension of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of the law, and with his natural gift and love of 
orator}' he became a most effective and successful advo- 
cate before juries. 

In 1890 he was a delegate to the Democratic national 
convention in Chicago, and became an ardent and elo- 
quent champion of the nominee of that convention, Hon. 
W. J. Br^-an, and of the principles for which he stood. 
In 1901 and each succeeding four years thereafter he was 
a delegate from the Stale at large to the Democratic 
[13] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator James 

national conventions, where he always attracted consid- 
erable attention, and at the convention in Baltimore in 
1912 and the one in St. Louis in 1916 he was selected as 
permanent chairman. He therefore enjoyed the distinc- 
tion of presiding over the two conventions that nomi- 
nated Woodrow Wilson for the Pi-esidenc}'; and it is 
Avell known with what a high degree of confidence and 
esteem he was held by President Wilson. His relations 
with the White House were so close and cordial that he 
was often regarded as a spokesman of the President, and 
he never faltered in his loyalty to him nor to the policies 
for which the President stood. 

His ambition as a boy and as a young man was always 
directed to a seat in Congress. He never sought nor held 
any other office, and in 1902 he was elected to Congress 
from his district, beginning his service in the Fifty-eighth 
Congress March 4, 1903. He served in the House with 
credit and distinction for 10 jears, leaving it March 4, 
1913, to enter the Senate, to which he had been elected by 
the General Assembly of Kentucky. His term, therefore, 
will expire on next March 4. But less than a month before 
his death last summer he had been renominated in the 
State Democratic primary, and had he lived would un- 
doubtedly have been reelected in the November election 
for another term. 

Senator James was one of the most popular and vigor- 
ous speakers of his day. He possessed natural talents as 
an orator. His striking appearance, his splendid voice, 
and his great skill in clothing his ideas in forceful words 
and sentences gave him a wonderful hold upon his audi- 
ences; and in the later years of his life no political speaker 
in the country had more demands upon his time for 
speaking appointments than he had. Upon the stump, 
the platform, in convention halls, and upon the floors of 
Congress he always commanded the most attentive hear- 
[14] 



Address of Mr. Beckham, of Kentucky 

ing. He was never tiresome and always exhibited the 
happy and rare faculty of know ing when to quit. He had 
an instinctive knowledge of the psychologj' of audiences. 
He seemed to know when to speak, what to say, and the 
proper time to close. 

I recall in a national convention some years ago where 
he demonstrated this unusual power over an assemblage. 
The convention had been in session nearly a week. Upon 
tliis occasion it was verj' late in the night and the conven- 
tion was impatient in its long waiting for the report of the 
committee on resolutions. The delegates and the many 
thousands of visitors were exceedingly weary and restless. 
Many speakers, some of them of first-class oratorical at- 
tainments and reputations, made numerous and futile 
efforts to entertain them; but the tired crowd would not 
hear the speakers and with jocular and good-natured in- 
terruptions drove them from the platform. Finally Ollie 
James was induced to try. It was a dangerous experiment 
for a speaker with a crowd in such a humor. But as soon 
as he stood upon the platform before them they became 
at once quiet and attentive. His massive form, the stirring 
tones of his great voice, and his well-rounded sentences 
soon captured the audience and they listened and cheered 
him repeatedly. He made an appropriate speech for the 
occasion and did not sacrifice his triumph by speaking too 
long. 

He was very skillful and successful in joint debates, and 
even in early days before he came to Congress he dared 
sometimes to challenge and meet in debate some of the 
veterans of the hustings and frequently bore off the hon- 
ors of the encounters. He proved himself a ready and 
forceful debater in Congress, and in parly controversies 
he was always regarded by his parly associates as one of 
their mosl effective pieces of artillery. 



[15] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

He was a Democrat of the strict and regular school, be- 
lieving with profound faith in the principles of his party; 
and although he was a partisan he always fought fairly 
and chivalrously and was esteemed and admired by his 
Republican associates as well as by his Democratic 
friends. He was absolutely loyal to the principles in 
which he believed and never failed in his championship 
of them. His ideas and views upon public questions were 
essentially democratic, and all his sympathies were en- 
tirely with the masses of the people, and throughout his 
public career he never failed in his support of those 
measures which he believed would bring the greatest good 
to the largest number of the people. 

In his five years' service here in the Senate he won 
many friends, and the sincerity and fearlessness of his 
views were recognized by all. He rarel}^ spoke on the floor 
of the Senate, but when he did he was sure of the most 
respectful and considerate attention. His last speech in 
the Senate was made just about one year ago, and it was a 
strong and ringing defense of the war policies of the ad- 
ministration. He had about reached the zenith of his 
power and manhood. He was still a young man, with a 
future before him full of hope and promise. He sought 
to serve his constituents to the fullest extent, and I believe, 
Mr. President, that his earnest efforts to serve his people 
in the great multitude of demands made upon his time 
and energies under war conditions had much to do with 
the breaking down of his health. Senators are familiar 
with the vast increase of work upon us since our country 
entered the war, and how difficult, if not impossible, it has 
been to meet every request or demand upon our time. 
The burden has been very hea^'y, and my late colleague 
in his conscientious efforts to meet his part of it, even with 
his strong constitution, sacrificed his health and his life. 



[16] 



Address of Mr. Beckham, of Kentucky 

Not only in his public life was he successful but also in 
his private life, and in his home he was most contented 
and happy. Married in 1903 to Miss Ruth Thomas, of 
Kentucky, a most lovely and admirable young lady, he 
had enshrined her as the idol of liis heart and had gal- 
lantly laid at her feet the triumphs and victories which he 
had achieved. In the sorrow and bereavement which 
have come upon her the hearts of all who knew this happy 
couple have been deeply touched. With so much to live 
for, it is dinicult for us, with our limited and finite knowl- 
edge, to understand the ways of Providence in striking 
him down at such a time. 

When he last spoke in the Senate, on the occasion to 
which I have referred, he acquitted himself well and ably, 
but those who sat near him could see that the stalwart 
frame was not what it had been and that serious illness 
was upon him. After that day he was never able again 
to take part in the work of the Senate. He was soon con- 
fined to his bed, and all tliat medical science and the 
tender ministrations of his devoted wife and of friends 
could do was done to relieve and restore him. He lin- 
gered for some months, bearing his sufferings patiently 
and heroically, until at last on August 28, 1918, in the hos- 
pital at Baltimore, he breathed his last and gave up his 
spirit to his God. 

He was onlj' 47 years of age, but in that brief span he 
had made a name for himself, a name associated with an 
honorable and brilliant public service, and a name cher- 
ished and loved by tlie people of his native State and by 
many thousands of others who had come to know and ad- 
mire him. Kentucky, Mr. President, was proud of Ollie 
James, and in the j'ears to come our people will continue 
to honor his memory and to count him among that bright 
galaxy of stalcsnun lliat our Slate has given to the Na- 

115068°— 20 — 2 [17] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

tion. They will always remember him as a brave and 
eloquent leader, as a faithful and conscientious public 
servant, and as a man who never failed through fear or 
favor to do what he considered his duty. To his sorrow- 
stricken widow and to the other members of his good 
family who have been so grievously afflicted we shall 
always bear the deepest and most heartfelt sympathy. 



[18] 



Address of Mr. Weeks, of Massachusetts 

Mr. President: Cerlainly not within recent years, if 
ever, has the Senate met to pay its tribute of respect to the 
memory of two such distinguished men as Senator Stone 
and Senator James. When I listened a few moments ago 
to the eloquent and just tribute which the senior Senator 
from Missouri [Mr. Reed] paid to his late colleague I 
could not help thinking how justly practically everything 
he said would apply to that other great Democrat in whose 
memory we have met. I am gratified to have the oppor- 
tunity to say a brief word relating to his service, for I am 
proud to think that I was included among his personal 
friends. 

Senator James entered the House of Representatives at 
the beginning of the Fiftj'-eighth Congress, one term be- 
fore 1 became a Member of that body, and thereafter until 
his death we served together continuously in the House 
and later in the Senate, so that I came to know him and 
his policies verj' well. He was one of the most consistent 
party men I have ever known, a fact I mention because it 
is not altogether usual in modern times and is one which 
has mj' general approval. A government conducted by 
two great political parties, in my opinion, has a more 
stable structure and produces more beneficial results to its 
citizens than any other method which may be followed. 
A failure to govern by parlies in the final analysis means 
personal government, which may be good or bad; but it 
is quite certain to lack regularity and stability. Good 
government or good business can only result by following 
a well-defined policy. An illustration of Senator James's 
views on this question and his recognition of it happened 
in a conversation he had with me shortly after we became 
Members of the Senate. He approached me with a propo- 
[19] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

sition that wc pair on all matters of legislation. I as- 
sented, and then asked him why he had made that pro- 
jjosal to me. His reply, I think, was characteristic. He 
replied : 

You are a consistent Republican on party measures and I am 
a consistent Democrat. Ttierefore it is a fair arrangement. 

Of all the men I have known in Congress I can not think 
of one who had a more dominating personalitj'. His 
record as a party man in the councils of his party clearly 
justifies this statement. Kentucky has been represented 
by a large number of men of national importance, many 
gifted orators, and, considering its population, has had 
an almost unequaled number of men prominent in na- 
tional politics. This fact makes it all the more remark- 
able that Senator James was the chairman of his State 
delegation at a national convention when he was but 25 
years of age, and from that time — 1896 — to the last na- 
tional convention of the Democratic Party no man in his 
party occupied a more prominent or influential position 
than did he. 

I never had tlie pleasure of hearing him in a political 
campaign, but the testimonj' from his State is universal — 
and that might be extended to include the entire countrj' — 
that no man in his daj' — and this is extreme praise when 
you think of the gifted men who have been active in Ken- 
tucky during the last 25 years — exerted a larger influence 
on the stump than he. His ver^' presence was one of 
authority and dominating influence. Not only was this 
true in his State and in national party councils but it 
was true in the Senate. His ability was recognized on 
both sides of the Chamber. Although very partisan in 
his activities, he never failed to be fair in his relations 
with his political opponents. Indeed, he maj'be described 
as a square man in his dealings with friend and foe alike. 
He struck hard, but never below the belt. 
[20] 



AnDiu:ss of Mk. Weeks, of Massachisetts 

His passing at the early age of 47 has removed from the 
stage of national affairs a man who would have been a 
leading figure in this country in some capacity for a gen- 
eration. If my information is correct, he was impreg- 
nable in his political position in Kentuckj'; and his return 
to the Senate — in fact, his continued returns — would have 
added more and more to Iiis influence and importance as 
a political leader. 

The country can ill afford to spare any man who has 
aptitude for public service, well-defined conviction, and a 
courage to stand by them. It would much better have 
among its public servants men who are wrong in many 
of their conclusions than to have in their place time- 
servers who base their actions on passing whims and 
whose main purpose is to maintain and augment their 
own political importance. 

I assume from its past history that Kentucky will con- 
tinue to be brilliantly represented in the Senate, but I am 
confident that it will be many days before that State will 
send to Washington a man who will exert a more impor- 
tant influence than did Senator James or a man who will 
be more jealous of the interests of the people of his State. 
To secure his interest and his effective aid it was only 
neccssan," to be a resident of Kentucky or even to have 
been by birth a Kcntuckian. This undoubtedly was a 
characteristic which had much to do with the strong hold 
he had and maintained over the people of his State. 

I pay Senator James this brief tribute with great pleas- 
ure, and notwithstanding the fact that wc were antago- 
nistic in our views on many important public questions I 
most sincerely regret that the career of this remarkable 
man has ended. 



[21] 



Address of Mr. Robinson, of Arkansas 

Mr. President : Formerly the membership of the Senate 
was composed largely of elderly men. During recent years 
that rule seems to have been modified and manj' compara- 
tively j'oung men have entered this body. Notwithstand- 
ing this fact, the death rate among Senators appears to be 
increasing. 

Since March 4, 1913, if my memory is accurate, 2.'5 Sen- 
ators and ex-Senators have died, 9 of them having re- 
turned to private life. 

The roll of Senators who have died within tliis period of 
less than six years is not confined to the feetle and the 
aged; it embraces also many who have been stricken in 
the prime and vigor of manhood. The high death rate 
among Senators may be accounted for in part by the fact 
that many have entered the Senate at advanced ages and 
after arduous labors elsewhere have reduced their vitality. 
This does not account for the increasing mortality in our 
membersliip. Congressional duties have multiplied in 
number and increased in importance during the last dec- 
ade. The outbreak of the war and its progress brought 
many new problems of vital importance to the Nation 
and to the world, and also created new labors of a quasi 
official nature sufficient in number to overwhelm the most 
vigorous Congressman. The physical and mental strain 
incident to labors in Congress during the war now closing 
accounts for the loss of some of our ablest and most in- 
fluential Members. 

The Senator from New Hampshire, Mr. Gallinger, 
passed away at the ripe age of 81 years, retaining his 
mental vigor and comprehensive grasp of public questions 

until the end. 

[22] 



Address of Mr. Robinson, of Arkansas 

Senator Stone died at an advanced age after long pub- 
lic service. Senator James died in the prime of life, at 
the high noon of his usefulness and influence. Prolonged 
service in the House of Representatives familiarized him 
with the details of national legislative procedure and 
afforded him with accurate knowledge of the many 
difficult problems connected with the progress of 
our countn'. When Senator James began his career in 
this Chamber he enjoyed, in addition to this knowledge 
of legislative problems and procedure, an intimate friend- 
ship with many Members in both Houses of Congress 
which contributed to his influence here. 

It may be said that some of the most striking character- 
istics of his public service are epitomized in the phrases 
" Party loyalty " and " Responsiveness to the will of the 
people." 

Senator James was a partisan; passionately, but not 
blindl}% attached to the Democratic Party. His partisan- 
ship was frank and aggressive. He was recognized 
throughout the Nation during the present administration 
as a powerful factor in its councils. 

He believed that virile political organizations are indis- 
pensable to the proper administration of government 
under our Constitution. He supported the platforms 
and nominees of his political party with unhesitating 
fidelity. During 15 years of intimate association with 
him in the House of Representatives and in the Senate I 
never knew him to expressly or impliedly repudiate a 
platform declaration to which he was committed or to 
fail to champion, when occasion arose, the administration 
or organization with which he was allied. Senators 
present will recall his eloquence and impetuosity in 
debate. His striking personality, forceful manners, and 
fluency of speech gave him a degree of power on the 
platform equal to that of any speaker who has appeared 
[23] 



Memorial Addrksses : Senator James 

during this generation. He was, perhaps, with the excep- 
tion of Mr. Bryan and the late former President Roose- 
velt, the most popular campaign orator of his day. 

Notwithstanding the marked attachment which Mr. 
James alwaj's manifested to the Democratic Party, his 
attitude on public questions was marked by a responsive- 
ness to the will of the people rarel}' evinced by men in 
public life. He was not ashamed to avow his readiness 
to effectuate the public desire in legislation. He believed 
that the people are the source of all political power 
under our form of government and that they can be 
safely trusted to govern. In political debates, both here 
and when speaking from the stump, he frequently 
appealed to public opinion as the supreme political tri- 
bunal. This practice was not the outgrowth of demagogy 
or of political cowardice. It was the natural development 
of an abiding faith in the integrity and intelligence of the 
people. 

In spite of partisan views and utterances. Senator James 
enjoyed many intimate friendships — friendships of the 
enduring kind, not to be accounted for by the simple rules 
alleged to govern human relationship but having their 
origin and growth in the indefinable but nevertheless 
powerful laws of human nature. One of the most valua- 
ble compensations of service in Congress is the associa- 
tions Members enjoy with one another and the lasting 
friendships thus formed. Neither politics, religion, nor 
similarity of habits form a standard by which our friend- 
ships are established or maintained. This fact, unimpor- 
tant as it may appear when first suggested, is of tremen- 
dous importance in giving elasticity to our social and 
political institutions. It enables us to witness the passing 
of political control from one party to another with calm 
assurance that the fundamentals underlying our civiliza- 
tion will be preserved and safeguarded, because we know 
[24] 



Address of Mr. Robinson, of Arkansas 

that llu' palriotic purposes of American citizenship are not 
nionoiK)lizcd by any one political party. 

Mr. President, it is a pathetic fact that we are so busy 
here with present and prospective duties that when a 
Senator dies his prominence is quickly forgotten, indeed 
rarely recalled. 

When a leader in the Senate falls another advances 
almost unnoticed to take his place. Our proneness to 
forget Members who have passed beyond is due in no part 
to lack of appreciation for their virtues. It is occasioned 
by the responsibilities of public duty — constantly chang- 
ing; always pressing. 

The memory of Ollie James will be perpetuated here, 
where he toiled so effectively for the preservation of the 
people's liberties. He will not be forgotten. The Nation 
will remember him for his unhesitating loyalty when it 
summoned American manhood to the defense of civiliza- 
tion. 

Kentucky will gratefully preserve his name and fame. 
Kcntuckians honored him while he lived — honored and 
loved him. They love his memory. That love is as tender 
as the starlight of a Kentucky night, yet as warm as the 
sunlight of a summer day uj)on Kentucky fields and hills. 



[25] 



Address of Mb. Kenyon, of Iowa 

Mr. President: Out of the aftection which I bore for 
Ollie James I could pay tribute at considerable length to 
his splendid qualities as a man, as a citizen, and as a legis- 
lator, but the hour is growing late, and I shall abbreviate 
considerably the remarks I had intended to make upon 
this occasion. 

Taking the oath of office by a Senator is always an in- 
teresting event. I can well remember — it seems but a few 
weeks ago, though, in fact, it was nearly six years — a 
powerful physical giant coming down the center aisle, 
standing at the Vice President's desk, and taking the oath 
as the new Senator from the State of Kentucky. 

I had known of him and of his career, but had no per- 
sonal acquaintance. He impressed me at that time as a 
thoughtful, earnest, determined, courageous man, and a 
fine specimen of American manhood. I came to know 
him well and intimately during his term, and the impres- 
sion made on that day became more fixed. 

While we differed in our adherence to political parties, 
I have seldom found myself out of harmony with his 
views on any question that related to the average everj'- 
day folks, and the news of his death brought to me the 
shock of a great personal bereavement. Such a man, as 
the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Weeks] has said, the 
country could ill afford to lose, especially in these trouble- 
some times. 

Kentucky has given many eminent men to the Nation. 
It has been a land where oratory has flourished. The in- 
tense struggles of the Civil War produced in its subse- 
quent history a rugged kind of character; a self-confidence 
and determination to stand for the right; a noble type of 
[26] 



Address of Mh. Kenyon, of Iowa 



honor and chivalry. A wonderful historj' is that of Ken- 
tucky, not only subsequent to but before the Civil War. 

From a log cabin of Kentucky came the greatest of all 
Americans, Abraham Lincoln; likewise from that State 
came the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. 
To-da)' there presides over the House of Representatives 
one of the most brilliant sons of the Nation, proud of old 
Kentucky as his birthplace. Champ Clark. Henry Clay 
was a son of Kentucky, and likewise our departed and 
beloved Ollie James. 

He had a liking and an aptitude for politics. Starting as 
a page in the Legislature of Kentucky, his rise was rapid, 
until at last his ambition for a seat in this body was grati- 
fied; and who can tell, had he lived, but that higher honors 
would have awaited him? Certainly he would have been 
one of the most prominent candidates for President before 
the next Democratic national convention. 

Probably no more interesting event ever occurred in his 
life than the reception given him by his home folks after 
his election in 1912; for, after all, it is the opinion of the 
folks at home, who know a man in his everj'day life, who 
see him as he walks among them and communes with 
them that really counts. 

It is not always true that the prophet is not without 
honor save in his own country and among his own people. 
At least, if that may be true of prophets, it is not true 
of men with red corpuscles in their veins. It was not true 
of Ollie James. I have copies of some telegrams that were 
sent to Senator-elect James at that time and read at that 
banquet. One, from Chanq) Clark, reads as follows: 

Washington, D. C, January 19, 1012. 
Ollie M. James, Marion, Ki;.: 

The noblest Roman of fhcm all, hearty greetings. Next to an 
ex-Kcntuckian, whom I will not mention for the sake of modesty, 
I would rather you, another Kentuckian, were shown the straight 



[27] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

and narrow path to the White House. If, later on, 1 am shown 
that path, I in turn would be happy to have 100,000 Missourians 
shown that majority for Ollie James; that would be about the 
right figure. Your fellow townsmen no doubt will drink to this 
sentiment with their ayes at the banquet to be tendered you to- 
night. 

Champ Clark. 

Another message on the same occasion: 

Washington, D. C, January 19, 1012. 
Hon. Ollie M. James, 

Senator-elect, Marion, Ky.: 
If your home folks think as well of you as we standpat Repub- 
licans do, it is jug-full and then some. Wish I could gaze upon 
your big, broad, good-natured face to-night and drink to your 
health and happiness. As I chew the end of my pantello and 
imagine ■wreaths of smoke curling upward I can not help medi- 
tating on the fact that the Democratic Party is more obnoxious 
to me than ever; for you are a shining light of that party and it 
does not deserve such good fortune. 

Joseph G. Cannon. 

And another: 

Lincoln, Nebr., January in, 1912. 
Senator-elect Ollie M. James, 

Marion, Ky.: 
Remember 1916. If you are not the standard bearer of our 
party that year I will be greatly disappointed, for Democracy 
needs just such men as you to succeed the Democratic nominee 
we intend to elect next November, one term being enough for 
any good Democrat, even if he is defeated after two times in the 
running like some I know of. 

My congratulations on the enthusiastic reception I feel reason- 
ably certain your own townsmen are according to you to-night. 

William J. Bryan. 

Mr. President, in order to be a leader one must inspire 
men. Ollie James did that. He was a master of great 
assemblies. Probably never in the history of the Nation 
has one man, save Brj'an, exerted more influence in the 
various national conventions of his party than he. In 
[28] 



Addrkss or Mh. Kenyon, of Iowa 



1912 and 191G he was permanent chairman of the Demo- 
cratic national convention. It will be difTicult, I think, to 
find, though it may be possible, that the same man has 
twice ia succession presided over a national convention of 
either party. His speech as permanent chairman of the 
St. Louis convention in 1916 is one of the masterpieces of 
political orator}-. He had been a great lover and follower 
of Brj'an; also of Champ Clark, whom he earnestly de- 
sired to see nominated in 1912. When Woodrow Wilson 
succeeded and became President he became his stanch 
defender; and no man ever luul a better one. His speech, 
hereinbefore referred to, at the Democratic national con- 
vention was a wonderful tribute to the President, and it 
came from the depths of his heart. 

His ability as an orator would be conceded by all who 
ever heard him. The old-fashioned, llowei-y sentences 
seemed to flow naturally from his lips. The pathos of his 
soul gripped the heartstrings of liis hearers. Tested by 
the ability to move and convince people, Ollie James was 
one of America's great orators, and certain!}' stood among 
the leaders as a political campaigner. 

He was true to the common folks. He loved them, not 
for politics' sake, but because he had known them and 
been raised in the hard school of adversity. He was a 
true representative of the cverj-day, average citizen of the 
Nation, and he was willing to fight in legislation and 
everj'where else for anjone whom he thought was the 
under dog in the fight. And Oi.lie James was a real fighter 
in the cause he espoused. 

No one would claim that he was not an intense political 
partisan, but he was fair. I think it would be diflicull to 
have convinced him that the Democratic Party ever made 
a mistake; bu' at the same lime he could see good in the 
opposition. Members of tliis body will not forget his con- 
test with Senator Camden on liie fioor. The ship-purchase 
[29] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

bill was under discussion. I shall always remember with 
what dramatic jjower he hurled these closing words of his 
very remarkable speech: 

But, Mr. President, above everything, if this bill must go down, 
if this great constructive measure must fail, if this must be the 
first defeat for the greatest President who has occupied that chair 
in 50 years, if he must fail and above his body the v^'ild shouts of 
a triumphant Republican Party shall rise, I do pray God that I 
may be spared the humiliation of reaching down to pull from his 
body a dagger bearing the impress of the hand of a Kentucky 
Senator. 

I have seen him swaj' great audiences and arouse them 
to fighting mood. He could rally his own partj' forces. 
His very appearance inspired confidence. They knew he 
could always take care of himself — in repartee, in humor, 
or in sledge-hammer blows. Intense partisans want their 
champion to flay the other fellow. Thej' were sure not 
to be disappointed when this son of Kentucky got into full 
action. 

He was always anxious in his legislative work to repre- 
sent the people of his State, although Ollie James realized 
that a United States Senator, while accredited to a State, 
should represent the entire Nation; and he was a big, 
broad American, hemmed in by no local influences. I 
have talked with him frequently on the prohibition ques- 
tion. We differed radically; but when things commenced 
to be going dry pretty fast in the countiy he said to me one 
day that while he did not believe in prohibition if the peo- 
ple of Kentucky got around to where thej' wanted it he 
should be for it. He believed in the people, and the people 
believed in him. That was the secret of his strength, and 
that made him the idol of Kentucky Democracy. 

The night of the discussion over the war some of us 

talked with him and urged him to make a speech. We 

had had speeches through the day — not much fire in 

them — and some of us wanted him to make a speech that 

[30] 



Aduress of Mh. Kenyox, of Iowa 



would stir up enthusiasm. He did, in a speech glowing 
with patriotism and fiery invective against the enemies of 
America. His father had been a Union soldier, and Ollie 
James loved this country as a man loves his mother. 

I never dreamed but that Ollie James had many years 
of service left to his countiy. His splendid physique 
seemed to insure him long life; but the reaper, death, so 
busy in this body, had marked him for its own. It had not 
seemed possible that Ollie James could die. His physical 
power seemed proof against death, but the cord of life 
snaps so easily. Truly — 

The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 

Be scattered around, and together be laid; 

And the old and the young, and the low and the high. 

Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie. 

Thus it has ever been; thus it will ever be. And so the 
great soul winged its flight to those mysterious, unknown 
realms. It was as if the strong oak of the forest had fallen 
before its time, and with its fall fell the hopes and aspira- 
tions of his friends for j'et greater honors for him. For 
Ollie James bound to him friends with hoops of steel — 
not merely everyday friends but the kind who will go 
through stress and trouble and fight for him. 

It was not so much as a politician and statesman that 
one was drawn to Ollie James, but it was that something 
about him that made one feel he was an unusual kind of 
friend; that he was a brother man, a heart man. He 
needed a large bodj' to hold his great heart. No one was 
ever turned from him when needing help, no poor soul 
without encouragement. 

Brave, generous, noble-hearted Ollie James! We will 
not see your like again. Sad to us that you should be 
called to leave this Senate before the full fruition of your 
life work; and yet such spirits as yours live on in the 
hearts of those they have befriended. The best epitaph 
[31] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

that can be written of any man is that men and women 
and children are a little happier because he has lived; 
that the world is a little better for his life. That could 
truly be written above the grave of Ollie James. That 
is enough to say of anyone. 

As Sunday after Sunday we are meeting here to paj' our 
humble tribute to those who have preceded us on " the 
long, long trail a-winding," may we not gather a better 
inspiration for our own lives; a firmer resolve so to live 
and to act toward one another that we shall be of those 
who are missed by humanity when the great summons 
shall come? It is not far away for any of us. 

'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis tlie draught of a breath. 
From the blossom of health to tlie paleness of death. 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud — 
O why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 



[32] 



Address of Mk. Thomas, of Colorado 

Mr. President: I, first met Oi-lie James at the Chicago 
convention of 1896. He was a large, ungainly giant of 
a young man, ill-attired, and very self-conscious. The 
Kentucky delegation occupied seats directly in front of 
that to which I belonged. Mr. James had been chosen 
chairman of the delegation, a notable distinction for a 
young and inexperienced leader. It had been instructed 
to vote as a unit, the majority at all times to determine 
what that vote should be. The delegation was a very 
turbulent one. Free coinage of silver was the issue. It 
had enthusiastic friends and a few determined enemies in 
Kentucky, and both sides were represented in the delega- 
tion, with silver in the majority. The minority, led by 
the redoubtable Col. Halderman, never failed to assert 
itself as occasion required — protesting, denouncing, and 
defiant. But the chairman, always self-controlled, polled 
his delegation, announced the rule, and cast the vote, un- 
perturbed by the outcries of his outraged but helpless col- 
leagues. Our acquaintance, beginning amid such dra- 
matic environment, soon ripened into a close friendship, 
which continued without interruption to the end. I visited 
Washington frequently during Senator James's career as a 
Member of the House, when he always made me welcome. 
He entered the Senate very shortly after I did, and from 
that time onward our relations were very close indeed. 

Senator James was an old-fashioned, uncompromising 
Democrat. His party faith was to him a sort of religion. 
Democracy was the only true gospel, and Jefferson and 
Jackson its great apostles. What his party did was right; 
what others did was wrong. Party disloyalty was high 
treason. The candidate having been chosen and the plat- 

ll.'iOCS'— 20 3 [33] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator James 

form announced, cverj' man should fall into line and obey 
the orders of the high command. To do otherwise at any 
time or under any circumstances was to him untliinkable. 
Honest, straightforward, and courageous himself, he 
could neither understand nor forgive in any man the of- 
fense of repudiating his party platform or opposing his 
party nominees, whatever the reasons. To him these were 
anathema. 

But such things mattered not at all in his daily inter- 
course with men. His friends were many and were of all 
political creeds. These he bound to him with hooks of 
steel. And he was a welcome guest and companion every- 
where, for he was kindlj', lovable, brilliant, and enter- 
taining. 

Senator James was gifted beyond most men of his gen- 
eration with the great power of persuasive eloquence. He 
was a man of fine attainments. Nature had endowed him 
with a commanding presence, a great voice rich in tones 
of harmony, and a marvelous faculty of expression. He 
was not a student, yet one of the best educated men of his 
time. He possessed fine intellectual faculties. His active 
mind easily absorbed and always retained information. 
His knowledge of men and of events, of political history, 
and of current affairs was remarkable for one who ap- 
parently devoted so little time to their contemplation. 

When I returned to Washington a year ago after a 
somewhat extended illness one of the first of my col- 
leagues to welcome me was Senator James. He was 
apparently in perfect health. I congratulated him upon 
his immunitjf from the ills and humors to which less 
rugged mortals were subject. To my great surprise he 
replied that he was far from well, and had for some time 
been in the care of his physician. It was ditficult to 
believe him. But shortly afterwards his ver^^ dear friend, 
the late Senator Hughes, passed away. From the shock 
[34] 



AuuKKss OF Mu. Thomas, of Colxjkado 

of this great grief he never fully recovered, and I have 
no doubt tliat it hastened the development of his malady. 
A few days afterwards he addressed the Senate upon the 
conduct of the war by way of reply to a speech of the 
senior Senator from Oregon upon the same subject. This 
address was characterized by all the earnestness and 
eloquence of the man. No listener could have suspected 
the speaker of illness, nor yet of waning physical or men- 
tal vigor. But he sustained himself to the close of his 
speech only by the most painful and prodigious effort, 
and retired to the cloakroom completely exhausted. He 
appeared in the Senate Chamber only two or three times 
thereafter. 

He died at a critical moment in public affairs. The 
allied advance was in full swing, but the German power 
was as yet unimpaired. New armies were gathering in 
America and the Nation was preparing for its mightiest 
effort. His services and his influence were needed as they 
never had been. 

The grim summons could not have come more inop- 
portunely for him nor for his countrj-. But matters like 
these lie beyond the power of human regulation and must 
be borne because they can not be avoided. And since 
man is ordained to die, the life of no single individual, 
however exalted, is indispensable to the welfare of the 
race. Society adjusts itself to the inevitable, and the 
inexorable processes of time are seemingly undisturbed 
by the tragedies of life or the needs of statecraft. 

He was a typical son of Kentucky. There he was born 
and there he alwaj's lived. For him there was not other 
landscape so green, no skies nor sunshine so winsome, 
no people .so lovable. His was the one countrj' of the 
earth, and Kentucky the fairest jewel in her crown of 
Commonwealths. He loved her with the same passionate 
devotion which the Frenchman lavishes upon the land of 
[35] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator James 

the tricolor and the lilies. And she returned his aflTection 
by crowning him with her highest honors. He served her 
well, added his name to the long and shining list of her 
illustrious sons, and sleeps peacefully in the sheltering 
embrace of her generous bosom. May the grass upon his 
grave be green while time endures. 



[36] 



Address ok Mr. Lewis, of Illinois 

Mr. President: What an interesting exception we have 
lately made, sir, when the Members of this body and our 
colleagues of the House adopted the holy Sabbath as the 
day when men shall assemble in Congress to speak there 
the feelings of the heart as to one who is dead. Yet, 
sir, if there is anything that can suggest to the mind that 
there is no deatli, it must bo tributes such as we have 
heard falling from the lips of those who speak only as the 
heart feelcth. If, sir, there were death in the sense we are 
sometimes taught to appreciate that word, men could not 
live in the souls of those who love them as though they 
were an inspired spirit breathing its own incense of 
bcautj' and fragrance of life — aye, to the last moment of 
memor\'. That we should on the Sabbath turn our wor- 
ship a little while to those who personified in their exist- 
ence that which is meant by religion is a beauteous adop- 
tion on the part of these, sir, who represent this assembly. 

Yet, sir, our meeting here speaks the fact that great 
men, great in merit of mind, in character of life, in virtue 
of public integrity have died. Truly, sir. 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
.\nd all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 

Await alike the inevitable hour. 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

I heard the Senator from Iowa [Mr. Kenyon], Repub- 
lican so called in the political division, and the eminent 
Senator the colleague of Senator James, Senator Beck- 
ham, Democrat, each pour out his tribute to the splendid 
State that gave birth to these two great men whose char- 
acteristics we commemorate this day — Senator Stone, of 
Missouri, and Senator James, of Kentucky. Sometimes, 
[37] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

sir, I am moved to the fact that as there is a certain soil 
which may produce a celestial bloom in floral growth and 
others that impart massive strength to forest tree, so, too, 
sir, there are certain places in regions of earth that pro- 
duce men in different flavor and varying standards from 
that which cometh up from other soil. 

Kentucky! Her every mountain preaches strength and 
presents something of a titanic aspect. Her hills huddle 
themselves together in something of glory, the furze of 
autumn and the flowers of spring sparkle in original 
beauty. In Kentucky every stream ripples through a 
sacred soil, while the shimmering light dimpling on her 
grasses makes radiant that which the world apostro- 
phizes as the blue grass of Kentucky. 

Natural, indeed, that from such a State there should 
come forth such spirits that embody within themselves 
elements something apart, indeed wholly different, from 
that which may be possessed by men elsewhere. Though 
we will not say of all that they were in all superior in 
their primal endowments, yet, sir, by comparison they 
were never failing in their virtues. Kentucky! There 
was Clay, Crittenden, Marshall, Beck, and now James. 
How their names loom before us and rise as something 
ascending to the mountain steps and presenting to us 
truly the visages of greatness. 

What a startling partiality this great State presents, 
where there seems to come nothing from her but that 
which shall be called wonderful ! 

Mr. President, 1 am not a qualified witness to the virtues 
of the noble dead we celebrate. My contribution can not 
be regarded impartial. I can not speak of the statesman 
Ollie M. James in the abstract analysis that these distin- 
guished gentlemen have framed and clothed him. I knew 
him intimately as a close, dear, personal friend; as such 
I loved him. In the House the distinguished Member from 
[38] 



AoimEss OF Mh. Lewis, of Illinois 



Alabama, Hon. Thomas Heflin, was probably the closest, 
apart from members of the delegation of Kentucky, of any 
of his colleagues in that branch. The eminent Senator 
from Colorado, Mr. Thomas, in his epic contribution but 
a moment past referred to the closeness that Senator 
James bore to Senator Hughes, of New Jersey. Pardon me 
if I add, sir, that early conditions of acquaintance drew me 
within that circle as one of the few to whom I think 
Senator James came with those little personal matters 
which mark the man as human, apart from the official 
and the statesman. I therefore knew him, sir, as a man, 
as did many of you who sit about me on this sacred oc- 
casion. He learned through the vicissitudes of life and 
the arduous struggles of one who had to combat all ob- 
stacles from men to feel that only within himself was 
there the true resource of conquest and victorj'. He had 
not the aspirations to acquire riches with which he might 
purchase immunity from the world's struggles and ex- 
emptions from its burdens or its miseries. He sought not 
that social exclusiveness that might look with disdain 
upon his fellow men in lesser spheres of life. Nor, sir, 
did he strive for heights of renown in that thing which 
we call statesmanship in office that he might glorify him- 
self in something of magnificence above his fellows. 

To him ever was the single object in whatever avenue 
he thought and whatever path he walked that all his ef- 
forts might lead to the aid of his fellow men. He recog- 
nized that all to be done and achieved was within him. 
His creed was that of Henley: 

It matters not how straiglit the gate. 

How charged with punishment the scroll; 

I am the master of my fate, 
I am the captain of my soul. 

This text, sir, guided him. This it may have been that 
charmed and allured him to toil and undertaking, and by 
[39] 



Memoriai. Addresses: Senator James 

that standard he achieved. That measure, sir, he applied 
to all those about him. He ever felt that men should be 
natural and true to themselves as men. That men should 
look within themselves to find their standards and from 
such behold what should be the guide of their conduct. 
There was not a man he knew, however humble, to whom 
he would not extend his hand. There was not one in dis- 
tress who could not look to him for refuge. He did not 
know how not to be a friend. 

Can we forget an instance here in this body, when an 
humble Armenian whom no one knew, who seemed to 
have been friendless in the invention that he thought he 
had conceived that could contribute something of welfare 
to our Nation? There were few who had confidence in the 
invention; but Senator James, as chairman then of the 
Committee on Patents, though smirked at and smiled at 
by those of his beloved friends who understood his cre- 
dulity and how easily he was impressed with any cry of 
distress from any quarter — nevertheless, sir, was found 
here pressing the claim of that obscure man for a hear- 
ing. This man was so situated that he could contribute to 
Senator James nothing personally or politically. Senator 
James did not know whether his petitioner could con- 
tribute anything of material benefit to the Government, 
but the advocacy by Senator James was an evidence, sir, 
of a nature so boundless in all its generosity, so large in 
all its sacrifices, so gentle in its mercies, that he could turn 
his great office and solicit at the hands of liis legislative 
comrades the highest service to be given to any mankind. 
This he would have done anywhere for anyone, however 
high or low the pleading mortal who asked for a hearing. 
I saw' nothing in all his life to me so significant of the gen- 
erous soul that beat through all his life as this exhibition 
he gave us of his solicitude in behalf of a helpless man, 
without means and w^ithout influence. 
[40] 



Address of Mr. Lewis, of Illinois 



Mr. President, it was as a statesman that these liis col- 
leagues could well turn their attention and address their 
tribute. They have done so with beauty and power. Ken- 
tucky, sir, was a State which was cradled in all the swing- 
ing flame that swirled to and fro in the awful strife be- 
tween the States of this Union. 

There was not a village within her precincts that was 
not accursed with the difl"erences by which brothers often- 
times faced each other with frowns, and not infrequently 
with swords, on the battle field. Kentucky was removed 
in a great degree from many of the extended questions 
and widening problems that agitated and agonized the 
general land — particularly in the great West, in which I 
live. Yet it is interesting to observe that when Mr. James 
came into public life from Kentucky he extended his mind 
into the broad area of the needs of all humankind. He 
declined to be narrowed to the inere demands of his dear 
hills and sweet valleys, and while as the distinguished 
Senators who have just addressed us have imparted to him 
the attribute of faithful party afliliation, he was a Demo- 
crat who aspired only that he might represent the princi- 
ples of the great democracy of man as he understood it. 
Mr. President, let justice be done to him, and that is to 
say that it was ever the great breadth and sweep of his 
whole countiy that engaged his attention and solicited his 
services and to wliich he dedicated his daily life. 

There was never a grievance in any part of America 
that was not his. There was not a wrong done in a State 
that he did not feel. There was not a sufl^ering of human- 
kind in the circle of this whole Republic that it was not 
his trust to remedy. There was not misery about him 
even of the humblest of mankind that did not beat against 
his heart and surge in every vein of his existence. For the 
removing of all this he was a statesman; it was to remedy 



[41] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

the wrongs of his country; it was to do justice to his fellow 
men he spoke, he served, he lived. 

Sir, it is said he was an orator. Yes; and truly Senators 
may refer to the conventions in which he exhibited such 
marvelous skill and the display of such talent, readily to 
be envied by any mortal. But I beseech you for a second 
to dwell on one passing thought. Senator James was 
truly the follower and supporter of Hon. Champ Clark, 
of Missouri, for the Presidency. He presided over the 
convention at Baltimore City with all the solicitude that 
a friend could have. Yet so impartial and so just was 
he there that he commended himself to the followers of 
the successful rival of Mr. Clark, Mr. Wilson; and four 
years thereafter he was seen to be the chairman of the 
convention -that was known to be for the then successful 
President, Woodrow Wilson. So just was he in all his 
rulings, so impartial in all his career, so manifestly true 
to all that there was confided to him there was no one to 
lift a voice against his elevation to the same authorit5\ It 
was not to men as persons he rendered his devotion but 
to principle, and whoever carried the colors of that prin- 
ciple of right and justice such it was under whom he 
marched and for that principle he drew his sword and 
blew his golden trumpet. 

Thus it was he became such an orator. He spoke from 
his heart. He echoed from his soul. He cried out to 
mankind, and, sir, he suffered the wrongs he abjured and 
condemned when suffered by others. He felt hurt in the 
pains wounding others, and he lived the hopes that he 
prayed for in behalf of his neighbors and his fellow citi- 
zens. Sir, thus it was that he was the manner of man we 
have listened to. Forty-seven years of age, hardly, sir, at 
the threshold of what begins a public career of greatness 



[42] 



Address ok Mm. Lkwis. oi Ii.i.inois 



to other men when he was summoned to celestial service. 
Truly, as Byron described Sheridan : 

Fruits of a genial morn, nnd glorious noon, 
Thie deathless part of him who died too soon. 

But, Mr. President, I decline to bear that solemn sadness 
that pervades many of my friends who have spoken so 
beautifully of the departed one. I have seen a candle 
burn down to its socket. I have seen its light go out. I 
have seen a little remnant of oil thai marked where once 
a living flame burned and glowed, and I was saddened. 

I have seen men come to public life akin to that 
candle and burn their lives out so long and so low that 
none could see the reflection of the flame where once they 
flashed, nor behold the beauty which was woven by their 
threads of silken sweetness. 

Here was a man who througli his gifts and by the per- 
mission oT Heaven was allowed to climb the mountains 
of greatness as high as men can usually ascend, and just 
at the pinnacle — indeed, at the top — with the glowing sun 
of success radiating about his head, he is beckoned to and 
ascends heavenward, carrj'ing with him, sir, the aureole 
of his reputation, the love of everj- friend, the admiration 
of man, and the fresh memory of his splendid achieve- 
ments to praise before the world. This is the pride of 
Kentucky; it is the glory of the United States Senate. As 
such this Senator becomes the idol of his State and the 
example to ambition to emulate as a standard of a 
Christian and a famous man. What could Heaven give 
man greater than this to transcend to his family, to 
transmit to his generation, and to establish him in praise 
and in commemoration in ages that shall remember him? 

Sir, that 1 mourn my friend it is true; that I deplore his 
loss, yes; because I saw the sweet and gentle life which he 
lived among those who love*! liim; but, sir, I can not but 

[43] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator James 

say that as death must come and as there must be the 
end of the journey to us all, I would to Heaven that those 
I love could have so sweet a fate, that when they go out 
they could go in such a golden glow as gleamed upon his 
existence and lighted his way to Heaven; for of him we 
may say: "A great tree has fallen in the forest, and with 
its crash the gates of Heaven opened and angels came 
forth proclaiming to the Master, ' There cometh one to us 
whom we now receive for that we loved him long and 
dearly.' " 



[44] 



Address of Mr. Martin, of Kentucky 

Mr. President: The associates and colleagues in this 
body of him whose niemor)' we have here gathered to 
honor have so feelingly paid him tribute and have with 
rare and choice expression so accurately portrayed those 
well-known outstanding traits, attainments, and charac- 
teristics which gave to Oi.i.iE M. James his fame and en- 
deared him to his friends that I feel as impotent to add 
anything to their eulogies as I am powerless to do justice 
to the life and character of this most remarkable man. 

Yet I avail myself of the privilege of this memorial 
occasion to recall to the Senate some incidents of his 
career, showing what manner of man he was, and for 
Kentucky, in mourning for her gifted son, to lay upon his 
grave a well-deserved wreath of kindly memories. 

From the beginning of his political history until its close 
by death at Johns Hopkins Hospital on the 28th day of 
August last. Senator Oli.ie M. James was constantly and 
conspicuously in the public eye — first in his congressional 
district; then in his native State; and. finally, as a figure 
of national reno^\Ti. 

For 15 years he was the undisputed, unquestioned, 
recognized leader of his State's Democracy. His leader- 
ship was founded upon his own power, bis unique per- 
sonality, his unparalleled popularity. He ignored machine 
politicians and the methods of machine politics and was 
never embroiled in the factional differences which so 
often divided his party in the State. He was indifferent 
as to whether the party organization was under the con- 
trol of friend or foe. With the consciousness of bis power 
and of his predominating influence with the masses, who 
recognized in him an aggressive exponent of the prin- 

[45] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

ciples in which they inherently believed, he was content 
to trust his political fate and fortunes to their keeping. 

Early in his career politicians found that he was too 
strong to be stayed; aspiring ones knew that when he 
wanted place he got it. They dared not oppose him, and 
practically without interference he was returned time 
after time to the National House of Representatives, then 
elected to the Senate by the general assembly, and again, 
while in the very throes of death, was chosen, with the 
certainty of election, as the nominee of his party for the 
term beginning March 4 next. During his first term in 
Congress, when in his 32d year, he look a commanding 
place; he was well informed on principles of government 
as well as those of his party whose tenets and faith he 
advocated and defended valorously on all occasions. 

In legislative action he was guided by and strictly ad- 
hered to what he considered the limitations of the Consti- 
tution and alwaj's stoutly defended his conception of the 
Democratic doctrine of States' rights. Consistently with 
his belief, he opposed vigorously Federal legislation on 
both the liquor question and woman suffrage; he regarded 
such action as an invasion of State sovereignty. Despite 
the entreaties and persuasion of close political and per- 
sonal friends, steadfastly and courageously he maintained 
his convictions on these subjects. 

While he revered and defended the mandates of the 
Constitution, he was not reactionary', and had no patience 
with those who shielded such tendencies behind abstruse 
technicalities of constitutional construction. 

This is shown by a speech he made in the Sixty-first 
Congress, defending a bill restricting gambling on cotton 
futures, in which he said: 

I have been here a number of years now and during that time I 
have seen many a knight of the Constilution come galloping into 
the lists gallantly, bearing himself with skill and ease, but I have 

[46] 



Addkess or ALt. Mahtin, of Kkntlcky 



during my service here seen not one of these kniglits of the Con- 
stitution, with visor down and lance at rest, come into the lists to 
do battle for the man who sows the grain or reaps tlie harvest or 
digs the ditcli. 

Mr. President, there are preserved in the records of the 
House and Senate as a monument to his talent and genius, 
as evidence of his patriotic solicitude for the welfare of 
his native land, numberless utterances, profound in 
thought, striking in style, eloquent in appeal. The last of 
these was made on this floor one year ago in this month, 
when, sensing the hideous magnitude of the war's mean- 
ing to the United States, and quickly realizing the burden 
that was to rest upon the shoulders of the President, he 
plead for support of his policies and decried criticism, 
then so prevalent, of the conduct of the war; he reminded 
the country that there were in the days of the American 
Revolution men who tried to displace George Washing- 
ton, though he afterwards waved in triumph the con- 
quered sword of Cornwallis; that there were critics in 
Lincoln's Ume whose policies, if adopted, would have 
ended in disruption of the Union instead of a triumphal 
march of the American Army down Pennsylvania Avenue. 
With confidence that Woodrow Wilson, if unheckled and 
unannoyed, would measure up to his great task, he pre- 
dicted in that speech that — 

The time will come in the providence of God when our victori- 
ous Army, with America back of it, will come back home in 
triumph and march down this same great avenue, panoplied with 
flowers and love and tears and pride of all America in review 
before Woodrow Wilson, the man whom not only America but all 
the civilized world trusts. Liberty will be safe and Americanism 
will be secure. 

His judgment was justified, his prediction has come 
true. Before the snows of a single winter liad fallen on 



[47] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

his new-made grave the armistice was signed. Peace had 
come. 

The war drum throbs no longer; the battle flags are furled. 

That victorious Army is coming home, and before this 
month shall have passed will march triumphantly down 
this avenue in review before the President of this great 
Republic, whom, in the eventful and crucial days of 
preparation for war, when he was beset by pacifists, pro- 
Germans, and critics, Ollie M. James, with unsurpassed 
patriotism, supported, defended, upheld, and encouraged. 

Mr. President, no tribute to Ollie M. James would be 
complete, no history of him could do his memory justice 
that did not give emphasis to his honor, his honesty, and 
his intensely keen sense of the obligations of a Senator 
and public servant. 

During the last year of his life his services were sought 
in two important legal cases from which he would have 
derived a fabulous sum — much more than lawj^ers of 
acknowledged ability could earn in a lifetime. Yet he 
refused to accept employment in either of them, for he 
believed that it was not his legal ability which the liti- 
gants sought, but an expected advantage because of his 
political prominence. In the summer of 1917 he had a 
contract with the Northwestern Chautauqua Association, 
by the terms of which he was to receive the sum of 
$10,000 as a platform speaker for that association during 
the summer of that year. Conceiving that duty required 
his attendance upon the extra session of Congress which 
was called, he canceled this conflicting engagement and 
devoted himself to his congressional labors. 

His intellect, Mr. President, was one of marvelous native 

power; his natural talents he developed and enriched by 

attentive alertness to his surroundings and by embracing 

the unusual opportunities which he had of learning from 

[48] 



Address of Mh. Martin, of Kentucky 

the many sources open to him in public life. Ho was most 
noted for his gift of oratory; but he did not owe his tri- 
umphs so nmeh to this as he did to an extraordinary 
mind, to steady work, and the impression he made on 
others that he was a man of ability. He was wonderfully 
adept in his power to engage and hold the attention of 
great throngs, and to this was due largely his great success 
in presiding over, witli masterly control, two great tur- 
bulent Democratic national conventions. His oratory was 
not the construction of phraseolog}' into the "business" 
style, but as a speechmaker he was distinctly southern, a 
master of flowcrj' language, with the taste and tact not to 
employ it beyond effective limit. Old-fashioned it may be, 
but in the case of Ollie M. James no man can say that he 
ever listened to one of his speeches all the waj' through 
and never got a single thrill out of it. 

Mr. President, Ollie James was a brave fighter who 
never lost a battle and never surrendered except to the 
final foe; he was, above all, a man and a gentleman, in 
whose soul burned brightlj' the light of chivalric courtesy 
and heartfelt consideration for others. 

These qualities, to Kcnluckians, who hate a coward and 
to whom it means something sacred to be a gentleman, 
appealed with such compelling force as to make of him 
the idol of his people, the most popular and admired man 
of his day. 

The late distinguished Senator from Kentucky, Mr. 
President, has yielded the floor, never again to be heard 
in this Chamber. Kentucky is proud of his record here. 
The Nation will never forget him. We who knew him 
personally will always hold his memory in sacred and 
deep affection. * 

As a part of my remarks. Mr. President, I desire to read 
into the Record the resolutions upon the death of Senator 

[49] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

James adopted by the Democratic State central and ex- 
ecutive committees of Kentucky: 

In the death of Senator Ollie M. James democracy has lost a 
great and gifted champion, the Senate an acknowledged leader of 
approved skill, the President of the United States a chosen cham- 
pion and sponsor, and the people of Kentucky an idol son, whom 
she regarded, not without cause, with pride and affection. 

Stricken in the meridian of his splendid manhood, his short 
life was crowded with splendid achievement. For 20 years a 
representative of the State in every national convention, twice he 
was chosen to preside over deliberations called to select his 
party's champion for the highest office in the civilized world. For 
five successive terms, without opposition, he represented his dis- 
trict in the Federal Congress, and upon his voluntary retirement 
from that post of honor he accepted a higher and more coveted 
position. From the hour of his appearance in the Senate of the 
United States he served with that distinction for which his ripened 
experience and brilliant talents so well fitted him. 

His death at this hour is regretted not by a party alone, but by 
a Commonwealth and by a Nation. 

Loyal, ardent, patriotic, brilliant orator, accomplished states- 
man, " though dead he still speaketh." His memory will be en- 
shrined in the hearts of Kentuckians long after monuments of 
bronze or marble erected above his ashes shall have ceased to 
defy " the wasting tooth of time." 

Mr. President, as a further mark of respect to the mem- 
ory of the late distinguished Senator from Missouri (Mr. 
Stone) and to the memory of the late distinguished Sen- 
ator from Kentucky (Mr. James) I move that the Senate 
do now adjourn. 

The motion was unanimously agreed to; and (at 3 
o'clock and 35 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until 
to-morrow, Monday, Februarj^ 3, 1919, at 12 o'clock 
meridian. . 



[50] 



Proceedings in the House of Representatives 

Wednesday, August 28, 1918. 
The House met at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Hcnrj' N. Couden, D. D., offered the 
following prayer: 

Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee that the Ameri- 
can Army in France has for its commander in chief not 
only a brave, gallant, and efTicicnt soldier, but a Christian 
gentleman, whose faith in God is unbounded, as disclosed 
in the incomparable life, character, and precepts of His 
Son Jesus Christ, who represents the Father in the con- 
crete and man at his best. 

The words which come from Gen. Pershing to the peo- 
ple of America are altogether reassuring: 

" The invisible, unconquerable force let loose by the 
prayers, hopes, and ideals of Christian America is incal- 
culable, and furnishes the soul and the motive for the 
military body and its cooperation; it steadies us to resist 
manfully the temptations which assail us in the extraordi- 
narj' conditions in which we find ourselves." 

God be witli him, his soldiers, and their associates, and 
grant them a speedy victorj' for the world. 

Our Father, again we are called upon to mourn the loss 
of one of the congressional family. We knew him on the 
floor of this House — a strong, efficient, wise man. We 
have known him as a Senator, full of enthusiasm, strength, 
and potency. Comfort us and be especially with his 
widow and tliose who are near and dear to him, and bring 
us at last into one of those many mansions prepared by 
the Saviour for Thy children. Amen. 



[51] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

A message from the Senate, by Mr. Crockett, one of its 
clerks, announced that the Senate had passed the follow- 
ing resolutions: 

Resolved, That the Senate has lieard witli profound sorrow of 
the deatli of the Hon. Ollie M. James, late a Senator from tlie 
State of Kentucliy. 

Resolved, That a committee of 15 Senators be appointed by the 
President pro tempore to take order for superintending the 
funeral of Mr. James, to be held in the city of Marion, Ky. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to 
the House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased the Senate do now adjourn. 

Mr. Johnson of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I offer the fol- 
lowing resolutions which I send to the desk and ask to 
have read. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Ollie M. James, a Senator of the United 
States from the State of Kentucky. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased 
Senator. 

Resolved, That a committee of 16 Members be appointed upon 
the part of the House to join the committee appointed on the part 
of the Senate to attend the funeral. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the resolu- 
tions. 

The resolutions were agreed to. 

The Speaker. The Chair announces the following com- 
mittee, which the Clerk will report. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Mr. Johnson of Kentucky, Mr. Helm, Mr. Thomas, Mr. 
Cantrill. Mr. Fields, Mr. Rouse, Mr. Kincheloe, Mr. Gar- 
rett of Tennessee. Mr. Heflin, Mr. Harrison of Mississippi, 

[52] 



Proceedings in the Hoi sk of Hei-kesentatives 

Mr. Langley, Mr. Cannon, Mr. Kahn, Mr. Dyer, Mr. Camp- 
bell of Kansas, and Mr. Walsh. 

Mr. Johnson of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I offer the fol- 
lowing resolution which I send to the desk and ask to 
have read. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That as a furtlifr mark of respect the House do now 
adjourn. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the resolu- 
tion. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to; accordingly 
at 12 o'clock and 20 minutes p. m. the House adjourned 
until to-morrow, Thursday, August 29, 1918, at 12 o'clock 
noon. 



Wednesday, January 29, 1919. 

Mr. Eagan. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
Sunday, Fcbruarj' 23, be set aside to hold memorial exer- 
cises on the life, character, and public services of the Hon. 
William Hughes, late Senator from the State of New Jer- 
sey. 

Mr. Barkley. Mr. Speaker, I make the same request on 
the same date for memorial exercises on the late Senator 
Ollie James, of Kentucky. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from New Jersey asks 
unanimous consent that February 23 be set aside for hold- 
ing memorial exercises on the late Senator Hughes, of 
New Jersey, and the gentleman from Kentucky |Mr. 
Bnrklcy] makes the same request touching the late Sen- 
ator James, of Kentucky. Is there objection? 

There was no objection. 



[53] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

Monday, February 3, 1910. 
A message from the Senate, by Mr. Waldorf, its enroll- 
ing clerk, announced that the Senate had passed the fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

Resolved, That the Senate assembles as a mark of respect to the 
memory of Hon. Ollie M. James, late a Senator from the State of 
Kentucky, in pursuance of an order heretofore made, to enable 
his associates to pay proper tribute to his high character and dis- 
tinguished public services. 

Resolved, That the Senate again expresses its profound sorrow 
at the death of the late Senator from Kentucky. 

Resolved, That the Secretary transmit a copy of these resolu- 
tions to the House of Representatives and to the family of the 
deceased. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased the Senate do now adjourn. 

Friday, February 21, 1919. 

The Speaker. Before beginning that the Chair desig- 
nates the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Sherley] to pre- 
side next Sunday, and when thej' come to the eulogies on 
the Senator from Wisconsin the Chair will ask the gentle- 
man from Kentucky to invite Mr. Cooper of Wisconsin to 
preside, and when they come to the Senator from New 
Jersey to invite Mr. Egan to preside. 

Mr. Mann. Is next Sunday set aside for eulogies? 

The Speaker. Next Sunday is set aside for eulogies upon 
three. 

StiNDAY, February 23, 1919. 

The House met at 11 o'clock a. m., and was called to 
order by Mr. Sherley as Speaker pro tempore. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered the 
following prajer: 

Thou Great Father Soul, in whom we live and move 
and have our being, we bless Thee for the deep moral and 
spiritual excellence resident in the heart of man, which 

[54] 



Proceedings in the House of Rephesentatives 

moves him to deeds of self-sacrifice in behalf of others, 
liberty, truth, right, justice, which excite in his fellows 
admiration, gratitude, praise. 

We are here to-day in memorj' of three men who died 
in the harness, striving for tlie l)elternicnt of tlie American 
citizen as Senators of the National Congress. Long may 
their works live in the heart of the true American to in- 
spire those who shall come after them, that the American 
institutions may live an ensample to all mankind. 

Comfort, we beseech Thee, all to whom they were near- 
est and dearest, by the angels of faith, hope, love, in the 
overruling providence of the living God, who hath decreed 
that life is stronger than death and love shall never die. 

" Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, be- 
lieve also in me." 

"In mj' Father's house are many mansions; if it were 
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for 
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, 1 will come 
again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there 
ye may be also." 

Amen. 

Mr. Sherley took the chair as Speaker pro tempore. 
The Speaker pro tempore. The Clerk will read the 
special order. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

On motion of Mr. Barkley, by unanimous consent, 
Ordered, Tliat .Sunday, February 23, 1919, be set apart for ad- 
dresses upon the life, character, and public services of Hon. 
Ollie M. James, late a Senator from the State of Kentucky. 

Mr. Johnson of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, 1 offer the 
resolutions which I send to the Clerk's desk. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved. That the business of the House be now suspended 
that opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of 

[55] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

Hon. Ollie M. James, late a Senator of the United States from the 
State of Kentucky. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased, and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career, the House, at the conclusion of the exercises of this day, 
shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to 
the family of the deceased. 

The resolutions were agreed to. 



[56] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Johnson, of Kentucky 

Mr. Speaker : Of those who speak of Ollie James upon 
this occasion I knew him longer. When he was only thir- 
teen or fourteen years of age he went to Frankfort as a 
page in the Kentuckj' Legislature, of which body I was then 
a member. Well do I recall him as a rollicking boy, in 
knee pants. There, away from the care of father and the 
watchful solicitude of mother, one miglit have feared for 
him lest the seeds of vice be sown in his young mind. But, 
even then, all his thoughts, as evidenced by his conversa- 
tions and acts, turned not to youthful frivolities, but to the 
more serious problems of life. Of evenings my room at 
the hotel was his customary' place. Manj-, many times 
I found him closely engaged in studying and asking ques- 
tions full of thought about pending legislative measures, 
although he was but little more than in his teens. At that 
time the opposition to corporate greed, which later was 
developed into real issue by the lamented Goebel, found 
serious public expression in Kentucky. I noticed the 
trend of the thoughts of this mere boy; and, as time went 
by, I saw the development of his mind. Then, after only 
a few j'ears, although not .yet a man, I saw his mind and 
heart in their molding. Before he had reached man's 
full estate I introduced him to a public audience in the 
courthouse at Bardstown, Ky., the place of my residence, 
and there heard him make a speech wliich presaged the 
orator and statesman to which he grew. Nearly twenty- 
five years later I introduced him for a speech to another 
audience at the same place. On this occasion his well- 
recognized statesmanship and his fame as an orator pre- 

[57] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

ceded him and filled the town with people, whose faith- 
ful champion he ever was. No greater speech has ever 
been made on the hustings than was his of that day. Our 
country was all but in the throes of a terrible war with 
the most powerful, the most ambitious, the most savage 
autocrat that ever came into this world in human form. 

Such a word picture of Belgium's horrors; such a vivid 
description of the destruction of France bj' the German 
hordes then almost at the gates of. Paris; such a detail of 
danger to the existence of Great Britain; such a placing 
before the minds of others of the pending menace to our 
own countrj' and the world no man before or since has 
presented. His audience knew real intellectual effort 
when it came along. Bardstown, Ky., where he made that 
speech, is not the easiest place to be found in the world 
for a speech. Long before Kentucky was admitted to the 
Union she was known as the "Athens of the West." 

There Jesuits, the best educated of educators in the 
woi'ld, found their way before the Indian had gone; there 
in the wilderness they erected a gi-eat college; there was 
established the first Catholic bishopric cast of the Alle- 
gheny Mountains, extending from New Orleans to 
Montreal and from the upper Ohio River to the Pacific. 
There hung the paintings of such masters as Rubens and 
Van Dyck, the gifts of Louis Philippe, King of the French; 
there, where Foster composed and set to music the soul- 
stirring strains of "My Old Kentucky Home"; there, 
where the gifted S. S. Prentice met more than an equal in 
the renowned Ben Hardin ; there, where John Rowan, am- 
bassador to Italy, United States Senator, lawyer, and 
statesman, had left his impress; there, whei'e Charles A. 
Wickliffe, Cabinet otTicer and profound lawyer, spent his 
life; there, where William R. Grigsby, eminent jurist, set 
a high standard for expression of thought — it was there 



[58] 



Adohkss of Mr. Johnson, of Kentucky 

that Oi,LiE James made one of the most impressive and 
patriotic speeches of this generation. 

I have heard men speak of Ollie J.\mes having climhed 
the ladder of fame to ahiiost the topmost rung. Ollu-: 
James never had to climb. He simply rose from year to 
3'ear as occasion came for an uncovering of his wonderful 
gifts. To him nature was most prodigal, indeed, in her 
generosity, lie was given size that hrouglit attention; a 
personality most pleasing; a voice heavy and strong, yet 
musical; a manner most engaging and prepossessing; 
always gentle and kind; ever charitable; never envious 
nor detractive; and, still more, an intellcctualit>' that 
challenged the admiration of all. 

In the connnon acceptation of the word Ollie James 
is dead. That of him which was only clay is dead; but as 
long as Americans may be able to read his mental 
achievements will live. 

We are taught that in the beginning God molded a 
form out of clay, a form which became that of man. 
But, when it had been so molded, it was inanimate. It 
could neither move, speak, think, nor in any way acknowl- 
edge even its own Creator. 

God leaned over that form of clay and breathed into it. 
Then it arose, endowed with the Heavenly attributes of 
justice, charity, mercy, and the other qualities so gener- 
ously given Ollie James. 

That form of clay has been given back to earth whence 
it was taken. But those splendid endowments will sur- 
vive on earth; while that soul, given of God, has but been 
taken back to God. 

With the " golden rule " as the test, his sojourn here 
was most beautiful, indeed. Those who shared his gen- 
erosity and received his charity are countless; while no 
one can be found whom he ever wronged. Such as Ollie 
James live always. 

[59] 



Address of Mr. Fordney, of Michigan 

Mr. Speaker : The State of Kentucky has no bronze or 
marble in Statuary Hall, but her sons need no monument 
to perpetuate their fame. We of the Northwest owe to the 
Pioneer State a debt of historical and political magnitude 
that we can never repay. Had it not been for the daring 
of Daniel Boone and David Harrod and George Rogers 
Clark, and men of their kind, the Northwest territorj' 
would in all probability now be a part of Canada, and wc 
of Michigan and Ohio, and Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, 
and Minnesota would be going with the members from 
Ontario and Manitoba to sessions of the Dominion Par- 
liament at Ottawa, instead of coming to Washington to 
the Congress of the United States. There is no page of our 
historj- brighter than the story of the first of our bursting 
buds of empire, the first chapter of the Winning of the 
West. Before the Revolution the sons of Virginia began 
going over the top of the forest-darkened Alleghenies in 
a stream of home builders, whose progress has never 
stopped. God made the North Temperate Zone for the 
home of the white race, and he put Kentucky in the center 
of it. Forest and prairie, river and rock, soil of eternal 
fertility', climate mild yet bracing, its landscape and its 
people pure American, and wc, the neighbors of Kentucky, 
are proud of every minute of her history. It was the men 
of Kentucky, headed by George Rogers Clark, who waded 
through miles of icy spring floods, surprised and de- 
feated the British forces under Hamilton at Vincenncs, 
sent him a prisoner to Virginia, and dealt the death blow 
to British dominion south and west of the Great Lakes. If 
Kentucky had done no more than that her place in the 
history of American independence and American develop- 
ment would be forever secure. 
[60] 



Address ok Mr. Fokdney, ok Michigan 

But every student of our early days must realize that 
while the Revolution passed the bill, the War of 1812 was 
a motion to reconsider; and it was not until Andrew Jack- 
son and his riflemen from Kentucky and Tennessee 
mowed down Pakenham and his British regulars at New 
Orleans that the motion to reconsider was laid on the 
table. Again all glorj' to the wild men of the blue grass. 

I love to think of the Battle of New Orleans, because its 
diplomacy and its shooting were so characteristic of Amer- 
icans. Pakenham, scorning the backwoods general and 
disdaining ordinary courtesy, wrote: 

Jackson, surrender New Orleans! 

Jackson wrote back : 

Pakenham, come and take il. 

Pakenham wrote : 

Jackson, I expect to take my breakfast in New Orleans Sunday 
morning. 

Jackson responded : 

Pakenham, if you do, you will take your supper in hell Sunday 
night. 

And the tradition of all good Kentuckians is that the 
Kentucky riflemen were in the front rank that fired the 
fatal first volley which blasted Wellington's veterans like 
chaff in a blaze. That was American diplomacy and 
American shooting, both straight and to the point. It was 
that battle, the ending of the War of 1812, which made 
possible the treaty that put the United States of America 
beyond the experimental stage, and made permanent our 
dominion from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Because in the 
negotiations about Oregon and Texas later Great Britain 
dealt with a nation she could not fail to respect. 

Meantime from the limestone soil of Kentucky there 
was springing up a race of giants, sons of those long 

[61] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

Scotch-Irishmen, improving the breed with everj' genera- 
tion. In 1808, 16 years after Kentucky was admitted to 
the Union, was born a boy destined to lead the South in 
the great Civil War, and a year later there saw the light in 
that State the boy who, as sixteenth President of the 
United States, was to do more than any other man to save 
the Union and live to see our Nation presers'ed. It is a 
remarkable fact that Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lin- 
coln were born within a year of each other in the same 
State, which about half a century later furnished to each 
Army, the South and the North, thousands of its best sons, 
and which again became, as it had been once before, the 
dark and bloody ground. 

Into this State, with this histoiy, with these inspirations, 
there was born in 1871 the man whose memon,' we honor 
to-day; the son of a lawyer, who at the age of 20 was ad- 
mitted to the bai% and whose personal qualities brought 
him almost at once into prominence. Other speakers here 
to-day will give the details of his early life. He was 
chosen a delegate to Democratic national conventions for 
20 years, beginning when only 25 years of age, in 1896, and 
in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1916. He was permanent 
chairman of the conventions of 1912 and 1916. For 10 
years he was a Member of this House; and beginning 
March 4, 1913, was one of the Senators from his State, an 
honored member of the illustrious company of great men 
who have held that office, of whom Henry Clay and John 
G. Carlisle are only two of many who might be recalled. 

Perhaps Senator James attained his greatest promi- 
nence in 1912, when he was permanent chairman of the 
Baltimore national convention, which nominated Wood- 
row Wilson for his first presidential term; and later was 
chairman of the committee that formally notified him of 
his nomination. In his speech as permanent chairman 
Mr. James said : 

[62] 



Address of Mr. Fordney, of Michigan 

The Civil War is over, and that flag — the brightest, dearest 
colors ever knit together in a banner of the free — waves above a 
united people, where it is loved by every heart and would be 
defended by every hand. And coming from the South as I do, 
I can say that if Abraham Lincoln were alive tliis night there is 
not a foot of soil under Dixie's sky upon which he might not 
pitch his tent and pillow his head upon a Confederate soldier's 
knee, and sleep in safety there. 

That this is one united country has been shown again, 
more gloriously than anyone could have dreamed seven 
years ago, by the historj' of the great war since April, 1917. 

Mr. Speaker, for many j'ears the joint sessions of the 
Senate and House were held only once in four years, to 
count the electoral votes for President. But in the last six 
years there have been many joint sessions; and everj' time 
I see the Members of the Senate march into this Hall and 
take their places in the front rows reserved for them I 
think of the power and greatness of the States they repre- 
sent. Why, such has been the increase in the efficiency of 
men in war that if the troops raised from the little State 
of Rhode Island, with their rifles, machine guns, and held 
artillerj', could be turned upon the Persian hosts that 
thronged the field of Marathon, there would be no battle, 
but only a massacre of the barbarians. In the small State 
of Delaware there was made last year enough of high ex- 
plosive to have destroyed all the armies of all the wars of 
antiquity. And the advance that has been made in meth- 
ods of destruction has been equaled in the arts of con- 
struction and production as well. To be a Senator now 
from one of the States of this Union is a prouder privi- 
lege, a far worthier place in the procession of human 
progress, than to have been any tyrant or monarch of old. 
Our dead friend was chosen by his State to be one of her 
Senators. It is honor enough for any man. 

Mr. Speaker, when one gels to talking about Kentucky 
he never knows when to stop. Her pioneers, her warriors, 
[63] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

her statesmen are an insi)iring topic. The great Speaker 
of this House is one of her illustrious sons. In literature 
and song, as well as in sterner things, Kentucky has an im- 
mortal place. Who does not love Stephen C. Foster's 
" Old Kentucky Home " and " ' Way Down Upon the 
Suwannee River " ? 

It was Kentucky's heroes in the Mexican War who called 
forth from Theodore O'Hara, one of her own people, what 
is prohably the most perfect memorial poem ever written 
in any language, and which will be repeated over soldiers' 
graves as long as the English language is spoken. And 
with that immortal poem I close this eulogy: 

THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD. 

The mufiled drum's sad roll has beat 

The soldier's last tattoo; 
No more on life's parade shall meet 

That brave and fallen few. 
On fame's eternal camping ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
And glory guards, with solemn round, 

The bivouac of the dead. 

No rumor of the foe's advance 

Now swells upon the wind; 
No troubled thought at midnight haunts 

Of loved ones left behind; 
No vision of the morrow's strife 

The warrior's dream alarms; 
No braying horn nor screaming fife 

At dawn shall call to arms. 

Their shivered swords are red with rust; 

Their plumed heads are bowed; 
Their haughty banner, trailed in dust, 

Is now their martial shroud. 
And plenteous funeral tears have washed 

The red stains from each brow. 
And the proud forms, by battle gashed, 

Are free from anguish now. 

[64] 



Ar)i)Hi:ss or Mr. Fokdney, of Michigan 

The neighing troop, the Hashing blade, 

The bugle's stirring bhisl, 
The charge, the dreadful cannonade. 

The din and shout are past; 
Nor war's wild note, nor glory's peal. 

Shall thrill with fierce delight 
Those breasts that never more may feel 

The rapture of the fight. 

Like the fierce northern hurricane 

That sweeps his great plateau. 
Flushed with the triumph yet to gain, 

Came down the serried foe. 
Who heard the thunder of the fray 

Break o'er the field beneath, 
Knew well the watchword of that day 

Was " victory or death." 

Long had the doubtful conflict raged 

O'er all that stricken plain. 
For never fiercer fight had waged 

The vengeful blood of Spain; 
And still the storm of battle blew. 

Still swelled the gory tide. 
Not long, our stout old chieftain knew, 

Such odds his strength could bide. 

'Twas in that hour his stern command 

Called to a martyr's grave 
The flower of his beloved land. 

The Nation's flag to save. 
By rivers of their fathers' gore 

His first-born laurels grew, 
And well he deemed the sons would pour 

Their lives for glory, too. 

Full many a norther's breath has swept 

O'er .\ngostura's plain. 
And long the pitying skv has wept 

Above its moldered slain. 



llSOfiS-— 20- 



[65] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator James 

The raven's scream, or eagle's flight, 

Or shepherd's pensive lay. 
Alone awakes each sullen height 

That frowned o'er that dread fray. 

Sons of the dark and bloody ground, 

Ye must not slumber there. 
Where stranger steps and tongues resound 

Along the heedless air. -^ 

Your own proud land's heroic soil 

Shall be your filter grave; 
She claims from war his richest spoil — 

The ashes of her brave. 

Thus 'neath their parent turf they rest, 

Far from the gory field. 
Borne to a Spartan mother's breast 

On many a bloody shield; 
The sunshine of their native sky 

Smiles sadly on them here. 
And kindred eyes and hearts watch by 

The heroes* sepulcher. 

Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead! 

Dear as the blood ye gave; 
No impious footstep here shall tread 

The herbage of your grave; 
Nor shall your story be forgot. 

While fame her record keeps. 
Or honor points the hallowed spot 

Where valor proudly sleeps. 

Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone 

In deathless song shall tell. 
When many a vanished age hath flown. 

The story how ye fell; 
Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, 

Nor time's remorseless doom, 
Shall dim one ray of glory's light 

That gilds your deathless tomb. 



[66] 



Address of Mr. Rouse, of Kentucky 

Mr, Speaker: The great sovereign Slate of Kentucky 
has been represented in the Senate of the United States 
by 44 of her citizens, Ollie M. James being the 
forty-second Senator. To John J. Crittenden belongs the 
honor of the longest years of service, he having served 18 
years. Joseph C. S. Blackburn served 17 years and Henry 
Clay served 15 years. The remarkable part of the sena- 
torial history is that the service of two of the ablest states- 
men, Henry Clay and John J. Crittenden, extended over 
the same period of j-ears, but not at the same time. It was 
44 years from the time each entered the Senate until his 
last term expired. Eight of these men so honored served 
less than one year, and one was expelled. 

Ollie M. James was born in Crittenden County, Ky., on 
July 27, 1871. From the beginning his career was notable 
though humble, and with only the education that he 
acquired from the common and academic .schools of his 
county he rose in a very short period of time from a page 
in the Kentucky House of Representatives to the highest 
position in the gift of the people of his native State, and 
this he accomplished without the means of a political 
machine but with the confidence of the people. 

He was a firm believer in the principles of the Demo- 
cratic Party in its best and broadest definition. He always 
believed and declared in the supremacy of the people. 
When at the age of 25 he was elected a delegate to the 
Democratic convention in Chicago which nominated Mr. 
Brj'an and afterwards campaigned for the nominee, his 
devoted friend and admirer, in many of the States. He 
was a delegate from the State at large to the Democratic 
convention held in Kansas City in 1900, to the SI. Louis 
convention in 1904, the Denver convention in 1908, to 

[67] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

the Baltimore convention in 1912, and to the St. Louis 
convention in 1916. At the conventions of 1900, 1904, and 
1908 he was elected chairman of his State delegation. 
He was defeated for the chairmanship of liis State dele- 
gation in 1912, but was elected permanent chairman of 
the national convention a month later, which was a higher 
honor and one sought by many of the able men of the 
party. His fairness and ability were so demonstrated that 
at the convention of 1916 the President insisted that he be 
made the permanent chairman of the convention, which 
was done by acclamation, and which convention renomi- 
nated Mr. Wilson for his second term. 

Well do some of us remember the happenings of the 
State convention held in Louisville in June, 1912, when 
Senator James resorted to the unusual. He made one of 
his able speeches and concluded by placing himself in 
nomination for the chairmanship of the convention. He 
was defeated in this ambition, and it was with great 
regret that some of us were compelled, for the sake of 
party organization, to cast our votes against the beloved 
Senator. However, though defeated for the chairman- 
ship of his State convention, he was chosen a delegate to 
the national convention at Baltimore, and it was here 
that he was elected by acclamation permanent chairman 
of the great convention which gave to the people Wood- 
row Wilson. James was one of the leaders of Speaker 
Champ Clark for the Democratic nomination in Balti- 
more in 1912, but after his candidate was defeated he 
supported the nominee of his party, and was at once the 
leader and spokesman of Mr. Wilson, and soon became 
the mouthpiece of the present administration in the 
Senate of the United States. His last speech made in the 
Senate, a little more than a year ago, was a masterpiece 
in defense of the President and his policies in the conduct 
of the war. 

[68] 



Addiiess of Mr. House, of Kentucky 

Ollie James rendered more distinguished service to the 
party which he loved and gave more time to the success 
of liis party in the State and Nation than any other pub- 
lic man during our time. He took a leading part in the 
last six Democratic conventions, was the foremost man 
to enunciate the principles of the party, and with his 
towering figure and wonderful voice was seen and heard 
in a majority of the States of the Union during the cam- 
paigns, both State and national, during llie past 2.') years. 

He was elected to each Congress from the Fifty-eighth to 
the Sixtj'-second, inclusive, and left the House to enter the 
Senate, where many of his friends predicted that he would 
be when the death angel called him to his final reward. 
He was a conscientious legislator of the Congress, a power- 
ful debater, and one who possessed the oratorical ability 
to meet any speaker of his day. He was a giant in phy- 
sique and possessed a striking personality, always attract- 
ing attention, no matter what the gathering. At all Demo- 
cratic meetings in the State and Nation he was one of the 
most prominent figures and wielded a powerful influ- 
ence. The public knew Ollie .Iames as an orator and 
statesman. As a speaker in a political campaign he had 
no superior and but verj' few equals. No person in 
public life of the age of Ollie J.xmes, in Kentucky or else- 
where, has ever contributed to the history of his State a 
more distinguished career, not having reached the age of 
50. He had served five terms in the House of Representa- 
tives and bad been chairman of two Democratic na- 
tional conventions and was rounding out a term in the 
United States Senate and renominated by a tremendous 
majority for a second term, receiving the indorsement of 
the people as no other candidate ever received in Ken- 
tucky, and this renomination was tendered him while he 
was near the end of his career and on his deathbed in the 
hos|)ilal in Baltimore. 

[69] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

His attention to his duty, his fidelity to his trusts, his 
ability and his integrity made a deep and lasting impres- 
sion upon those he served, and the announcement of his 
passing away brought from the people throughout the 
entire countrj' the deepest regret and expressions of heart- 
felt sympathy such as has been rendered to but few who 
preceded him to the great beyond. 

No one of his acquaintances could accuse the Senator of 
being a politician; so far as I knew, he made no attempt 
to build for himself a political organization, always rely- 
ing upon the people, and his faith was never misplaced. 
He was a power in the Democratic Partj' and used his in- 
fluence freely and ably in all the campaigns. However, 
his purpose was solely for the good of the party he loved 
and of the policies for which it stood and in which he was 
a firm believer. 

Senator James passed awaj^ at Johns Hopkins Hospital 
in Baltimore on the morning of the 28th of last August, 
where he had made a brave and hard fight against a dis- 
ease that had claimed him as one of its victims, and only 
surrendered when his feeble nature was overcome by the 
inevitable. The familiar figure of Kentucky's Democratic 
giant will for many years be missed among those who 
loved the party and the people. 

To be admired is an honor which many public men ex- 
perience, but to be loved and 'admired by nearly all of 
one's acquaintances is an honor and distinction that but 
few men attain. Our friend was one of the rare creatures 
of God who could claim this distinction. 



[70] 



Address of Mr. Heflin, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House : The life of 
an able and faithful public servant is an inspiration and 
help to the youth of the countn,' and a blessing to his race. 
The most interesting and helpful history is that which 
tells the story of success achieved in spite of hardships and 
hindrances born of ill fortune. The greatest intellects and 
benefactors of the race have come from the moderately 
well-to-do and from the ranks of the world's struggling 
poor. These, by their example, inspire and encourage 
those who purpose in their hearts to succeed in spile of 
adverse circumstances. 

The House of Representatives is assembled to-day to 
pay a tribute of love and reverence to the memorj' of a 
truly great American, born in Kentucky amidst the hard- 
ships and privations of the reconstruction period that fol- 
lowed the War between the Slates. His parents were poor 
in the things that make up the sum of this world's goods. 
His father was a Union soldier and his mother had four 
brothers in the Confederate Army. At the end of the war 
his father, like many other soldiers on both sides, had to 
start life over again amidst hard and Irj'ing circumstances. 

Ollie James as a boy worked upon the farm and cut 
wood and made fires and did other work about the home. 
During spare time he worked for neighbors needing help, 
making a little money whenever he could. He told me of 
one of his first experiences, that of carrj'ing brick up a 
ladder to the workmen on a building for 10 cents a day. 
He was appointed to the position of page in the Kentucky 
Legislature when a youth of 14. He was educated in the 
common schools of Crittenden County and the high school 
at Marion. He studied law with his father, who had be- 
come a si)lendid lawyer, and was admitlcd to the bar 
L71] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

when 20 years old. It was not long until he was recog- 
nized as one of the ablest and best young lawyers in Ken- 
tucky. Older lawyers who knew him in those days told 
me that he acquainted himself with the law and with 
everj' detail of his case and presented it to court and jun,- 
in such masterful fashion that he soon became one of, if 
not the greatest, trial la%vyers in the State. 

Ollie James was born for public service. When 29 
years old he was elected chairman of the Democratic 
State convention of Kentucky, and every four years, from 
1896 to 1916, he was elected a delegate from the State at 
large to the national Democratic convention. In 1912 he 
was elected chairman of the national Democratic conven- 
tion at Baltimore, and he presided over its deliberations 
when Woodrow Wilson was nominated for the ofBce of 
President. His speech before the convention at Baltimore 
had so thrilled and electi'ified the delegates and the coun- 
try that in 1916 he was the unanimous choice of the Presi- 
dent, the national Democratic committee, and the dele- 
gates to the national convention, and when the convention 
assembled at St. Louis he was made its chairman by 
unanimous vote. His speech on that occasion was the 
greatest treat and triumph in American oratory' that I 
have ever witnessed. His speech there was even greater 
than his great speech at Baltimore. When he left the 
convention at St. Louis, the idol of Democrats from everj' 
section, he was acclaimed by all who heard him as the 
greatest orator in America. Delegates from all over the 
country told him at St. Louis that he was their choice for 
President in 1920, and if he had lived I believe that he 
would have been nominated and elected. 

From his youth he cherished the ambition to be a Mem- 
ber of Congress, and when 31 years old he was unani- 
mously elected to the House of Representatives from the 
largest Democratic district in Kentucky. When I came to 
[72] 



Address of Mr. Heflin, of Alabama 



Congress in 1904 he was serving the last half of his first 
term. Mr. Speaker, the first time that I ever heard him 
speak in the House I was drawn to him and wonderfully 
fascinated by his frank manner, his splendid argument, 
and pleasing elqquence. Before he had served three 
terms in the House he liad become a leader, a member 
of the Ways and Means Committee, and the ablest and 
most powerful debater on either side. He was magnetic, 
courageous, brilliant, and fascinatingly eloquent, and in 
his service of 16 years in the House and Senate he was 
the able and faithful friend of the masses and was always 
the champion of fair and honest government. The peo- 
ple — the plain people, as Lincoln used to call them — ^never 
had a better friend in Congress than Ollie James. He 
wanted to see everybody have a fair chance in the struggle 
of life, and no man in my day has done more to bring 
justice, prosperity, and happiness to the great masses of 
our people than tliis big-hearted and brilliant son of Ken- 
tucky. At the age of 41 he was elected to the United States 
Senate from the great State of Kentucky — a State that 
points with pride to her illustrious Senators, Clay, Bibb, 
Crittenden, Beck, Carlisle, and Blackburn — great men, all 
of them, but none greater than he. Mr. Speaker, I do not 
believe that Kentucky ever elected a United States Senator 
so greatly esteemed and dearly loved by the people of all 
classes as was her big, brave, and brilliant son, Ollie 
James. He loved Kentucky. Every throb of his big heart 
beat loj'al to her. He recounted with pride her loves, tra- 
ditions, and patriotic incidents and illustrated in his own 
great life and cliaracter the magnificent and enduring 
qualities of her people. 

In the debates in the House and in his speeches on the 

hustings he had already made a national reputation, and 

when he took his seat in the Senate Kentucky had in him 

the ablest and most popular Democrat in tlial distin- 

[73] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

guished body. During the first year of his service in the 
Senate he became the mouthpiece of the Wilson admin- 
istration, and from tliat time on until stricken down with 
illness the President leaned on his strong arm for support. 
In Februaiy, 1918, when German propaganda was ram- 
pant in our country and thoughtless critics in high places 
were attacking and belittling our Militai-y Establishment, 
Senator James arose and in a brilliant and powerful 
speech arraigned a Senator in terrific fashion for certain 
unwarranted criticism that he had made. It was a great 
speech — his last speech — and made in support of the ad- 
ministration and in the interest of his countrj^ and hu- 
manity. He silenced the thoughtless critics, and from that 
day on till the end of the war no one else over there dared 
to attack the country or the country's program for the 
prosecution of the war. For 16 years he had been the 
pride and idol of the Democrats of Kentuckj', and at the 
time of his death he was the pride and idol of the democ- 
racy of America. His great qualities of mind and heart 
made him the ideal public servant and won for him the 
admiration and love of the American people. Like Lin- 
coln, he sympathized with the poor and unfortunate, and, 
like Clay, he pleaded their cause on the hustings and in 
the House and Senate of the United States. In present- 
ing the doctrine of his party of equal rights to all and 
special privileges to none I have seen him sway the mul- 
titude by the power of his great eloquence and convincing 
logic. I have seen the House and Senate thrilled and 
stirred by his wonderful speech, and I have seen President 
Wilson sit pleased and charmed under the spell of his 
mighty eloquence. His speeches reflected the splendid 
genius and brilliancy of his big brain and the sympathy 
and love of his big, brave heart. In the stormy days of 
1910 and 1912 no one man contributed quite so much as 
he toward electing a Democratic House and Senate and 
[741 



Address of Mr. Hefi.in, of Alabama 



a Democratic President. He was in deed and in truth a 
great leader of men and a man of the people, one that 
they loved, honored, and trusted. He was the friend of 
ever}' honest man and the foe of everj' crook. He loved 
his countrj' and gave the best years of his life to her serv- 
ice. He was a terror to tiiosc who would use public oflice 
to pillage and plunder the people. His ideal government 
is found in these words that he used to quote from 
Christy's proverbs : " That is the best government in 
which an injury- to one is the concern of all." In his* 
ideal government the welfare of the citizen is the highest 
concern of all. He fought governmental favoritism and 
special privilege, and to the day of his death contributed 
to good government and the welfare of our people. In 
pleading for the perpetuity of the Republic he said : " The 
Government must be so fair and square and just to all 
its people that everj- heart will love it and everj' hand 
defend it." I never knew a man witli a keener sense of 
justice or one who would do and dare more to see justice 
done in all the walks of life. Mirabeau rendered signal 
service to his country when in the French Assembly. He 
defied a proud and haughty nobility and denounced a 
powerful and unscrupulous clerg}', and with the battle- 
ax of truth broke down the idols that corruption had 
erected in the temple of liberty. In 1910, when the agents 
of special privilege infested the Capital and a Cabinet 
officer was aiding predatory interests in robbing the 
Government of its coal lands in the West, Ollie James 
preached a crusade against the evil and with the battle-ax 
of truth drove Ballinger from the Cabinet, prevented the 
plunder of the Government's coal fields, and prepared the 
way for the coming of Woodrow Wilson and the regenera- 
tion of the Federal Government. He helped to frame and 
pass the great constructive measures that now adorn the 



[75] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator James 

statutes of our country and bless and benefit the American 
people. 

When the war with Gcrnianj' threatened and his countiy 
called this brilliant son of Kentucky was at the forefront, 
with head erect and the light of perfect loyalty upon his 
face — a 100 per cent American. He was for his country in 
heart, mind, and purpose. His last speech in the Senate 
was in defense of Americanism and in behalf of human 
liberty. In that great speech he predicted the overthrow of 
Germany and the triumph of American arms. He said that 
our troops would return victorious and amidst the ap- 
plause of a happy Nation march in triumph down Penn- 
sylvania Avenue. The war ended as he said it would, and 
our brave boys are going to march down Pennsylvania 
Avenue, as he predicted. The pity is that he could not 
live to witness the victory achieved, the home-coming of 
our boys, and the triumphant march of the American 
Army. But he has passed from the scene of a busy, 
brilliant life. He lived up to the full measure of duty and 
destiny, and at the noontime of life, in the midst of an 
active, successful, and useful career, he fell asleep, with 
the blessings and benedictions of the Nation upon him. 
He was an able, courageous, and conscientious public 
servant. He devoted his whole time and attention to the 
duties of his high office. The prosperity and happiness 
of Kentucky and America constituted the great end and 
aim of his public career, and no man in my knowledge has 
contributed more to the strength and glorj' of his State 
and Nation than he did during his service in the Amer- 
ican Congress. Besides being a great patriot, a great 
Democrat, and a great orator and statesman, he was a 
commanding figure, a unique and picturesque character. 

He was a man of great personal magnetism and was 
wonderfully blessed with a fine sense of humor. All in 
all, I have never known a more attractive and pleasing 
[76] 



Addrkss of Mr. Mkfi.in, of Alabama 



personaliU' or a better, braver man. There was nothing 
mean nor little in his life. He was the essence of sincerity 
and the soul of honor. Truly can it be said of him, to 
know him was to love him. His big heart was a veritable 
treasure house of the noblest traits and sentiments of the 
human heart. He was an optimist and always looked 
upon the bright side of life. To him every cloud liad a 
silver lining. He was of a genial and happy disposition. 
Life was beautiful to him. He loved it and enjoyed it to 
the full. 

He possessed a big, generous, and sympathetic heart, 
and no one in distress ever called on him in vain. If all 
those for whom he has done some act of kindness since 
he has been in public life in Washington could speak 
to-day a multitude of witnesses would rise up and bear 
testimonj' to the generositj' and goodness of his big and 
loving heart. 

Three years ago on Christmas eve day late in the after- 
noon he walked down Pennsylvania Avenue. Close up 
by a show window where "Santa Claus" and Christmas 
toys of eveiy kind were displayed were three little boys 
whose dress and general appearance told the story of 
their poor surroundings. The Senator from Kentucky 
stopped and for a moment looked on with keen interest 
as the three little boys talked about "Sandy Claus" and 
the toys in the window. 

He could remain silent no longer. The memory of 
Christmas eve night in his boyhood days came vividly 
back to him, and he said, " Boys, old ' Santa Claus ' will 
be coming to see you to-night, will he not? " They looked 
up quickly and shook lluir luads. He then said, " Do you 
see anything in llie window that you would like to have? " 
And they all answered quickly and with enthusiasm, " Yes, 
sir." And he said, " Well, lets go in and see what they 
have got." They followed, and their little faces were 
[77] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

wreathed with smiles of perfect joy. He told them to 
select the toys that they wanted. They did so, and 
thanked him from the depths of their grateful, happy 
hearts, and then went running home. 

This is only one of the many kindly and beautiful 
things that this big and noble hearted man did in his day. 
He loved and honored his father and mother and was 
warmly devoted to his brother and sisters. For 14 years 
of happy, uninterrupted friendship 1 shared his love and 
blessed comradeship, and he was mj' most intimate and 
best loved friend. During the fatal illness that took him 
away I visited him at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Bal- 
timore twice a week as long as the physicians would per- 
mit anyone to visit him. He was cheerful and brave to the 
last. The summons came in August, 1918, and Kentucky's 
big brave son fell asleep as sweetly and as peacefully as 
a little babe in its mother's arms. His devoted brother 
Edgar had watched him and ministered to him till the 
end came. Mr. Speaker, during his long illness the con- 
stant and tender devotion and watchful care of his loving 
wife was one of the most beautiful and sublime things 
that I have ever witnessed. She who had been the pride 
and idol of his heart, his inspiration and joy in health, 
and had made his home and life supremely happy was 
now his good angel, keeping vigil at his bedside, speaking 
words of cheer, praying for his recovery, and blessing him 
with her love. Happy pair! God never blessed a woman 
with a better husband or a husband with a better wife, 
and I know that up yonder, where God's angels' faces 
smile, she will see again this princely man that she has 
loved long since but lost a while. 

Mr. Speaker, the Bible tells us that in the midst of life 
we are in death, and this is true. " The finger of the de- 
stroying angel is at every latchstring. His foot tracks are 
in every path." 

[78] 



Address of Mr. Heflin, of Alabama 



I have seen a rosebud in its freshness and beauty burst- 
ing into bloom. Then in all its beauty and glory I have 
seen the full-blown rose basking in the sun and filling the 
air with its fragrance. And just as I was praising its 
beauty and enjoying its perfume a gust of wind came. I 
looked again and the rose was gone. I have seen the 
meadow, the field, and wood, with carpet of green and 
buds and blossoms and leafy foliage, stripped of their 
beauty and verdure in a single night. And I said the rose 
is like the charm and glory of a beautiful life — just as we 
bask in its sunshine and arc happiest in its presence death 
calls and the adored one is gone. The buds and blossoms 
and leafy foliage that bless and adorn the earth every 
year are like youth, middle life, and old age. Once a 
year nature sends the frost god to call the buds and blos- 
soms and leaves back to mother earth, and every year 
death invades the ranks of our friends and loved ones, and 
from the plains of youth, middle life, and old age God 
calls His children home. There are broken links in the 
chain of every family circle, and death has placed crepe 
on the doorpost of every home. No one escapes his sad 
visitation. The old and the young, the high and the low, 
the rich and the poor must all pass muster at the portals 
of death. Is death the end of our earthly joys and the 
final end of us, or is it God's gateway through which we 
pass into another state of existence, where, freed from the 
ills of the flesh, we shall enter upon the joys of the life 
eternal? Is death a thing to be dreaded? Is it the enemy 
of mankind, or is it, as Plutarch said, " God's greatest gift 
to man " ? At the entrance upon the journey of life is the 
glorious awakening at the luminous dawn. At the other 
end is the sunset and the gloaming, where twilight deepens 
into darkness and we sleep through the night of transi- 
tion. Death is but the castle at the end of the road where 
we pause for a moment to shake off the raiment of the 
[79] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator James 

mortal and put on the robes of immortality. In the time 
that is to come we shall know and understand. 

O, blindness to the future kindly given, 

That each may fill the circle marked by heaven. 

I believe in the resurrection of the dead, as he did, and 
in the life beyond the grave. My friend Ollie James is not 
dead. He has passed into the higher life, and we shall 
meet again. He was a distinct blessing to his day and 
generation, and the world is better and brighter because 
he has lived. America has lost one of her ablest and 
most faithful sons. Peace to his ashes. God rest his great 
soul. 



[80] 



Address of Mr. Kincheloe, of Kentucky 

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Repre- 
sentatives: When the immortal spirit of Oli.ie James, at 
the Johns Hopkins Hospital the latter part of August, 
1918, winged its flight back to the God who gave it, one of 
the most brilliant stars that ever shed its luster upon the 
intellectual firmament of Kentucky went out. 

Prodigious of stature, endowed with a brilliant mind, 
unexcelled oratorical powers, and a magnificent voice, he, 
like Saul, towered above his brethren. 

He was born in Crittenden County, Ky., maintained his 
residence there through life, and his remains were in- 
terred beneath a wilderness of flowers in the beautiful 
little cemetery in the suburbs of Marion. 

He was admitted to the bar in early manhood and prac- 
ticed law extensively for many years, participating in 
some of the most important and sensational cases ever 
tried in Kentucky, notable among which was the cele- 
brated contest case of Gov. William Goebel for governor 
of the State of Kentucky. 

When a mere youth he became interested in politics and 
arose with unparalleled rapidity to distinction in the 
councils of his party by the force of his own genius. He 
was always a partisan Democrat, believing in the cardinal 
principles of the Democratic Party, but at the same time 
he was always fair and courteous to a political adversary. 

He was a delegate to the Democratic national conven- 
tion in 1896 and a delegate from the State at large from 
Kentucky to every Democratic national convention since 
that time. He was elected permanent chairman of the 
Democratic national convention in 1912 at Baltimore, 
which nominated Woodrow Wilson for President, and 



[81] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

was unanimously elected again permanent chairman of 
the Democratic national convention at St. Louis in 1916, 
which renominated President Wilson, and was selected hy 
both of the conventions to deliver the speeches of notifica- 
tion of his nomination and renomination. These two 
honors which came to him are without a parallel in the 
political history of this Republic. The speeches which 
he made at those two conventions are political master- 
pieces and electrified and aroused the delegates of both 
conventions. 

At the age of 31, in 1902, he was elected a Member of 
Congress from the first congressional district of Kentucky 
and served in this capacity for 10 years. He arose to 
prominence almost immediately after beginning his serv- 
ice, was for several years a member of the Ways and 
Means Committee, and was one of the ablest leaders on 
the Democratic side. 

In a State-wide primary in July, 1911, he was nominated 
by the Democratic Party of Kentucky for United States 
Senator and was elected by the Kentucky Legislature to 
this exalted position the following January. Like in the 
House, he arose immediately to distinction in the Federal 
Senate. No Senator was more in the confidence of our 
great President than he, and the President had no more 
able champion and defender of his administration than 
Ollie James. 

It was my good fortune to know Ollie James intimately, 
having lived within half a square of him here in Wash- 
ington ever since 1 have been in Congress. Every impulse 
of his being was in sympathy with struggling humanity. 
He had a heart that was capacitated for an ocean of 
human love and for human sympathy, as boundless as the 
fathomless depth of space. His motto always was that the 
helpless are the ones that need help, and he was continu- 



[82] 



Address of Mr. Kincheloe. of Kentucky 

ally exerting his best endeavors to alleviate the sufferings 
of those who needed it. I never knew a public servant 
more diligent, proficient, and faithful in serving his con- 
stituents. Ever}- constituent, however humble, could al- 
ways get an audience with him, and his plea was patiently 
heard. He not only rendered service to those who needed 
it, but he did it in a quiet and unassuming way and with- 
out the flare of trumpets. As an evidence of his sympathy 
for those in distress the following incident occurred here 
in Washington. It was never told by Senator James, but 
by his secretarj', Mr. Vernon Richardson, who witnessed 
it. About three years ago Mrs. James visited her good 
friends Mr. and Mrs. Post Wheeler, at Tokyo, Japan. On 
one Sunday morning she was to meet them in Philadelphia 
to start on their trip, and Senator James accompanied her 
as far as Philadelphia on that day. When they arrived at 
the Union Station here in Washington he saw a lady in 
mourning sitting in the depot sobbing and apparently in 
distress. He approached her and asked her the trouble. 
She replied that she had recently lost her husband and 
that she was just returning from Lynchburg, Va., where 
she buried her only daughter, on her way to her home at 
Jersey City, and on arriving at the station she had lost the 
balance of her ticket to Jersey City and her pocketbook 
containing '?6, which was the last cent she had. Senator 
James, without telling anyone, went to the ticket agent and 
bought her a ticket to Jersey City and gave it to her, to- 
gether with a $10 bill. When he did this the good woman 
asked him who it was that was bestowing this great favor 
upon her, and he replied as he bade her good-by, " It is 
just a sympatlietic friend," and the good woman never 
knew who it was. 

No man was ever more strongly attached to his friends. 
It was well known, not only in Washington but through- 



[83] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator James 

out the country, that he and my good friend Congressman 
J. Thomas Heflin, of Alabama, were not only devoted to 
each other but were at times inseparable. Miss Julia 
O'Donaghue, of Philadelphia, a sister of Mrs. Nancy 
Doyle, of Washington, who is a veiy dear friend of Mrs. 
James, expressed very aptly the devotion of Senator 
James and Congressman Heflin in the beautiful poem 
which she wrote, entitled " My Comrade," and dedicated 
it to the mcmoi-y of Senator James, which poem is as 
follows : 

Last night, as in a sepulchcr of thought 

I paced in silent anguish my lone room, 

Bemoaning my friend Ollie; he that fought 

To conquer the inevitable doom 

That waits on man; he, the proud statesman, bold, 

And of gigantic structure, tow'ring height. 

Cut olT ere his bright gems of thought were told 

To man from that rare intellect of might; 

Dismembcr'd in the zenith of his prime 

And at a crisis when his word might sway 

The hand of tyranny, dissolving crime, 

The grief in fields of wretchedness allay, 

I asked why death should claim him for its own 

And chill a heart all generous and true. 

Thus, while I catechized the great unknown, 

A spirit presence closely to me drew. 

I shuddcr'd not, but wept with joy. 'Twas he. 

We met; ah, not in fear but ecstasy. 

Then, slowly, and with deep and res'nant tone, 

He spoke: "My Comrade, you whom I have known — 

Friend of all friends — oh, do not for me grieve. 

Draw near and hearken to me and believe, 

Death cut the branches of a withered tree 

That it might bloom in immortality. 

When I embark'd from out my shattered urn, 

I claimed one great request, that I return 



[84] 



Address of Mr. Kincheloe, of Kentucky 

To clasp your hand and speak one word with you. 

My time is brief; my words, they must be few. 

There is not a dissev'rance of true souls, 

Each renders unto each the love it holds. 

Great is my love for you, dear Comrade. Trust 

That in th' celestial regions of the just 

My spirit feels your invocation sent 

For justice and your country's betterment. 

Submerg'd in darkness are the pow'rs of state. 

Soon shall His hand — the great, just Potentate — 

Quell the grave madness that o'ershadows earth. 

All shall be changed, as in the bow'r of mirth 

Man shall abide with man in faith and peace. 

Wars amid pestilence forever cease. 

I can not tell thee more. I must away. 

Adieu! The spirit mandate I obey. 

When next we meet — ah, not in life's abyss — 

We'll quaff the chalice of eternal bliss. 

This beautiful poem aptly expresses the fideHty of this 
great man not only to Tom Heflin hut to all of his legion 
of friends. 

I was at his hedside several times in the beginning of 
his last illness and saw him at the hospital in Baltimore 
shortly before the end. He suffered intensely, but was 
always cheerful and faced the inevitable in the same 
spirit in which he faced the problems of life — coolly and 
bravely. 

He was one of the most cpideictic and panegyric orators 
of his time. On the political hustings he could arouse the 
enthusiasm of his audiences as no other man. He was 
one of the ablest champions of the principles of the Dem- 
ocratic Party that this Nation had. Struggling humanity 
never had a more devoted and competent leader. 

I have often thought since his death tliat his old father, 
stooped with the load of years and bending under the 
burden of sorrow and grief, should take some consolation 



[85] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

in the fact that his life was spared long enough to see his 
boy reach the exalted position in life which he did. The 
pages of Kentucky and American history will be made 
brighter by the endeavors of Ollie James. 

I shall cherish his memory and the intimate associations 
with him in the sentiment of the poet when he said : 

Long, long be my heart with such memories filled, 
Like a vase in which roses have long been distilled; 
You may shatter, you may break the vase if you will, 
But the scent of the roses will hang around it still. 

His life was a benediction to all of those who were for- 
tunate enough to possess his friendship and enjoy his 
association. 

Mr. Johnson of Kentucky took the chair as Speaker pro 
tempore. 



[86] 



Address of Mr. Madden, of Illinois 

Mr. Speaker: Ollie James was a great American. His 
name is known from ocean to ocean. He was a great 
Democrat; but while a great Democrat and advocating 
Democratic policies he was still a greater American. His 
political beliefs were based on fundamentals, but his 
Americanism was based on the heart that believed that no 
men in all the world were such friends to humanity as 
Americans. 

It was my privilege to know Senator James long before 
he dreamed of becoming a Senator. We came here to- 
gether, I think, and served together during his service in 
the House. 

Notice that Ollie James was going to speak always 
brought an audience to the floor. Sometimes — in fact, 
frequently — it happens that notice that a certain Member 
is going to speak clears the House of all but those who are 
ashamed to go, but Ollie James was always an attraction 
as an orator. He was clean of habit; he had a logical 
mind; he was a good speaker, a profound reasoner, and 
he had the ability to express his thoughts more forcibly 
than any other man with whom I have associated during 
my term in this House. 

He was physically and mentally great. His mentality 
was not less great than his physical powers. He was a 
man of simple habits. His treatment of all questions was 
frank. He was truthful in his dealings with men. His 
integrity was well understood everj'where. He had a 
model character, of which everyone who knew him was 
proud. He lived a life that everyone could afford to emu- 
late. He had a great record as a public servant. That 
record will stand in histor\' for all time to come. It will 
[87] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator James 

be an inspiration in the future for those who are to act 
upon questions similar to those involved in the activities 
that Senator James was called upon to indulge in. 

Senator James was a true lover of America and her in- 
stitutions. He was devoted to everything that bore the 
name "America." He believed that the word "Ameri- 
can " should mean more as the result of our participation 
in this war than it ever meant before. He wanted to see 
the American flag respected in every land and upon every 
sea, and he wanted America to give all she had and all 
that she was to preserve her honor. He wanted the insti- 
tutions of America to be preserved and protected. He 
wanted them handed down without stain to the genera- 
tions that are to people this continent in the ages to come. 
He believed in the kind of patriotism that loves the coun- 
try; that is loyal to the well-being of the country. He be- 
lieved that patriotism should be as strong as the love of a 
son for mother; that we should make any sacrifice for the 
Nation that gave us birth and which we have the honor to 
serve without hope of reward. His was a public life de- 
voted to America's cause. His life was inspired by a de- 
sire to do the thing that would best promote the welfare 
of our country and our people. He was not only willing 
to have the country make any sacrifice to that end, but 
was willing to make any sacrifice himself for his country. 
I have always had the greatest admiration for the Ameri- 
canisin of Senator James as exemplified in word and deed. 

No man in the history of my experience was better 
qualified to express his beliefs in the spoken language 
than was Ollie James. No audience could listen to him 
without being convinced of his sincerity. No audience 
could sit at the feet of such an orator without being 
inspired by his eloquence. 

Ollie James, like other boys who started without hope 
of success, is but another evidence that America is the 
[88] 



Address of Mh. Madden, of Illinois 



land of opportunity; that here, and here alone, such a 
thing as the success achieved by Ollie James and men of 
his ability and eloquence is possible, because here alone 
the people rule. Here the power comes up from the peo- 
ple to the State, and while the people elect men to ofiice for 
a temporary' period and give them power the people them- 
selves always remain the governing authority, and it is 
because men rise from poverty and obscurity and can 
understand the trend of the thought of the people with 
whom they associate that they reach the high places in 
the life of our Government. In no other land can such a 
thing be possible, because in other lands the rights of the 
people heretofore have come down from the State to the 
people. Ollie James realized that in other lands they de- 
pend upon the sword and the cannon for the maintenance 
of the government, while here in America he realized full 
well, and practiced what he realized, that our Government 
is maintained by the citizen's respect for the law. Ollie 
James was not only a good lawmaker, but he understood 
how these laws should be enforced. He understood that 
laws should not be oppressive. He knew how to sym- 
pathize with the common mass. His mind met the mind 
of the common man. 

He was a great man. He was simple, as all great men 
arc. It is only the man who thinks himself great and re- 
fuses to come into contact with the masses, lest they might 
undersand that he is not so, who fails to understand the 
masses. Ollie James was not one of these. He under- 
stood them as few men do. His record, his life, the words 
that he had uttered, will live to in.spire those who are yet 
to follow. 1 am proud to have known iiim, to have under- 
stood him, to have been |)erinitled to associate with him, 
to have loved him, as I did, for his integrity of purpose, 
for his honesty, for his high character, for his American- 



[89] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

ism, for his devotion to his country's cause, for his un- 
selfishness, for his sacrifice in behalf of others. 

I believe, too, that this is not the end of life; that we are 
yet to meet in another place. I believe that when the soul 
is separated from the clay of the body it moves onward 
to perform other and more important functions, and that 
we who have been proud in days gone by to have asso- 
ciated with Ollie James and to have participated with 
him in the work of government will meet again to sep- 
arate no more forever. 

Mr. ELincheloe took the chair as Speaker pro tempore. 



[90] 



Address of Mr. Sherley, of Kentucky 

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House: Kentucky 
has always been a State made up of men of marked char- 
acteristics. Their faults and their virtues are obvious, 
outstanding, and of their virtues the greatest lies in their 
individuality, an individuality that makes them act from 
a free, untrammeled standpoint, and as a result Kentucky 
has been the forum ever since it was a part of this great 
Union, a forum for the settlement of the great issues that 
have vexed the people of this Nation. And it is a forum 
where they settle issues in a forensic way. There are 
fought out before the people the issues of the day and of 
the time. Flowing from this habit, during Kentucky's 
entire history there have always arisen great leaders, 
great orators, but, even more than orators, great debaters, 
men who were able to present their view of those 
questions. 

For 25 years in Kentucky's recent history one man stood 
out foremost as the orator and debater of Kentucky in the 
highest sense of those terms. Ollie .James came into 
prominence in Kentucky before he held olTice. He was a 
power in political conventions before he was old enough 
to vote. He helped to influence and determine party com- 
plexion, party platform, long before he spoke with the 
advantage of position and of the j)owcr that flows from 
position. 

In 189G he became a national figure as he had been a 
State figure for many years before. No one who attended 
that memorable Democratic convention in Chicago, who 
remembers the stormy scenes, who knows, as all of us who 
have had some part in public life know, that underneath 
the speech making, underneath the routine of the conven- 
tion is being done much of (he great work that determines 

[91] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

the result of a convention, can forget the figure of Ollie 
James, his heroic size, his determination, his zeal. His 
was the zeal of a crusader for a cause that he believed in 
and for a man that he believed in, and that made him one 
of the dominating figures of that remarkable convention. 
From 1896 on there was no great national scene of his 
party in which he was not a prominent, and frequently 
the most prominent, figure. In the four succeeding con- 
ventions he had a leading part and in the past two was 
chosen permanent chairman, and as such delivered 
speeches that will live as models of convention eloquence. 

Ollie James and I came into public national life to- 
gether in the Fifty-eighth Congress, he representing a 
rural constituency, I a city one, with the necessary differ- 
ences of local viewpoints that grow out of different en- 
vironments, but during all of these years that service only 
brought us closer together, and to-day I feel like speaking 
of him, not so much as a statesman — others can more 
splendidly portray his achievements than I — but as a 
friend. I saw his growth. 

Men who come into public life, particularly into the 
Congress of the United States, either grow very much or 
they deteriorate verj' much. No man stands still in the 
Congress of the United States. The forces that here meet 
and contend are too dynamic for men to remain in fixed 
positions. Either they are moved forward to broader, 
bigger, deeper things, or they fall back into obscurity 
from which by chance they may have come. From the 
hour that he came here he was an influence — an orator, 
yes; but I think of Ollie not as an orator as we usually use 
that term, but as a debater. I know no man who had a 
more ready adaptability to meet an issue as it might be 
presented on the moment; and no man had more capacity 
to sum up, at the end of a debate, and present the real 
factors that should determine judgment. 
[92] 



Address of Mr. Sherley, of Kentucky 

And so he grew constantly here, broadening his view- 
point. He was always sympathetic, always in touch with 
the real aspirations of the people of the country, the every- 
day sort of folk. As his horizon broadened, as his oppor- 
tunity grew, so grew his knowledge of need and of cause 
and of complex conditions that confront men who really 
endeavor to solve the problems of a great empire like this. 

Placed always on important committees, he never 
needed them. They were simply a medium for him, but 
not a necessity to him. The House of Representatives and 
the Committee of the Whole were his forum. Here he 
could command an audience and a result, not because he 
spoke as a member of some committee having the matter 
in charge, but because he brought to the consideration of 
the question judgment and thought and information that 
were of value to the House. 

It was inevitable from the beginning that he should go 
from here to the Senate. It was inevitable that Kentucky 
should give to him the highest honor that she could. And 
from the very day he sought her favor, not for himself, 
but in order that he might serve her, she never faltered in 
her loyalty to him. When Ollie James offered himself for 
the Senate no one ever questioned that he would be nomi- 
nated, no one ever questioned that he would be elected. 
Yet the Slate is one of doubtful political allegiance. 

As a Senator he immediately took first rank, and on 
many occasions proved himself there, as he had so often 
in the House, the peer of all his opponents. He became 
the foremost champion of the administration, but he was 
more than this. He was the champion of his country, in 
a sense broader than a mere party champion, and in her 
days of stress his voice was ever raised to fan into whiter 
heat the flame of the people's patriotism. An American 
whose devotion to country had no qualifying factor, his 
love of the right, his sympathy for the weak and op- 
[93] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

pressed, caused him literally to dedicate himself to the 
furtherance and success of a war that he knew was waged 
only for righteousness' sake. His fine scorn of those who 
sought to temporize with great fundamental issues, 
through fear of political results, burst forth again and 
again in words of scathing denunciation. 

It was in the midst of this intense activity that illness 
overtook him. He chafed at an enforced idleness that de- 
nied him the opportunity of further service when service 
meant so much. Kentucky followed day by day the news 
of his health, hoping and praying for his recovery. Had 
he been spared how gladly she would have given him 
again to the service of his country. He could have con- 
tinued as a Senator of the United States as long as he de- 
sired, and he would have continued adding to his fame 
and to the fame of his State if the end had not come so 
suddenly and so tragically for him and for us. 

No man ever gave more generously of himself than he 
did. Few except those who knew him intimately knew to 
what extent he gave of his vitality, of his time, of his 
thought, to help those who were his friends and those 
whose cause he believed in. Perhaps beyond any other 
man whom I can recall he has lifted his voice on behalf 
of his party and his party's candidates, not only at home, 
not only where it might be thought to be worth while to 
himself, but everywhere, at any time that he thought he 
might be of real service. The day was never too disagree- 
able, the journey never too long or difficult, and nothing 
caused him to refuse. It was because of that continuous 
outpouring of himself, that giving of all that was in him, 
that perhaps the end came when it did come. 

He died while yet a young man. And yet length of life 

is not all. We like to think of men living their full span 

of life, their threescore years and ten. And yet when men 

are judged they are not judged by length of life, but by 

[94] 



Address of Mr. Sherley, of Kenticky 

achievement. Ollie James compressed within the forty- 
odd years of his life more of service to humanity, more of 
achievement for his country, more that makes life worth 
while, than is given to many men who live twice that long. 
To those of us who knew him and loved him his loss 
means something more than the passing of a great na- 
tional figure. It means something more than a realization 
that it is diflicult to fill his place and to carry on his work. 
It means the loss of the sympathy, the friendship, and the 
personal help that will always be to us the most cherished 
memory of a splendid, loving friend, a man of noble heart. 



[95] 



Address of Mr. Barkley, of Kentucky 

Mr. Speaker: Death claimed a shining mark when 
Ollie M. James crossed the silent river which divides us 
from the broad eternity that stretches out beyond. If one 
short year ago I had been asked to name those public 
men whose careers would be prematurely shortened in 
the next 12 months his name would have been absent 
from the list. So strong and vigorous he appeared, so 
full of life and boj'ish zest he was, so sure of long tenure 
of office and distinguished service he had a right to feel, 
that we never associated him with thoughts of death. 

Yet it but illustrates the truth, which is as old as hu- 
manity, that — 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power. 
All that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 

Await alike the inevitable hour; 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

The death of no man in recent years has produced more 
genuine and universal sorrow in Kentucky than that of 
Senator James. When the sad news, not wholly unex- 
pected, was flashed across the wires to the people of 
Kentucky men and women of all shades of political belief 
paused to mourn the loss of their most distinguished 
public servant. The rich, the poor, the ignorant, and the 
lettered alike mingled their tears in a grief which all 
men felt but none could express. The banker, the mer- 
chant, the professions, the plowman, the fireman in his 
cab, the blacksmith at his anvil, the carpenter at his 
bench, the schoolboy at his desk, the mother whose son 
had gone to figh't and die for the land he loved and 
honored, all turned their thoughts to the stalwart and 
familiar figure now fallen and to be seen no more. 
[96] 



Address of Mr. Barkley, of Kentucky 

I shall not attempt to review at length his public career. 
That is the task of the historian, who by the nature of his 
calling and equipments can do fuller and more complete 
justice to the subject. But I can not refrain from reciting 
a few of the characteristics which made Oli.ie James one 
of the most beloved and popular men of his time. 

I am not old enough to recall the time when he was not 
a commanding figure in the politics of Kentucky. When 
the great Byran campaign of 1896 was gathering force 
and strength, though but 25 years of age, Ollie James had 
been chairman of the Kentucky delegation at the con- 
vention which nominated him. Mr. Bryan once told me 
that one of the impressive things which he always re- 
membered about that convention was the massive figure 
of Ollie James leading the Kentucky delegation in start- 
ing the famous " march of States," which had much to do 
with the Nebraskan's nomination for President. It was 
entirely fitting that Mr. Bryan should remember this in- 
cident, for from that day forward he had no more loj'al 
or devoted follower than the man from Marion. 

The first time I ever saw Mr. James was during this 
famous campaign. I can never forget the impression he 
made on my boyish mind. It was on a train, and he had 
been somewhere to make a Democratic speech. I thought 
I had never seen a man so large or one who filled so com- 
pletely my ideas of what a Congressman ought to look 
like. At that time he had never held a public office. But 
it was inevitable that sooner or later he would enter pub- 
lic life, for he was fitted by nature, equipment, and in- 
clination for tlic political leadership which he afterwards 
enjoyed. 

In 1902 he was elected from the first congressional 
district of Kentucky, known as the Gibraltar district on 
account of its great Democratic majority, to a seat in the 
House of Representatives of the United States. By rea- 

1150C8'— 20 7 [97] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

son of his great size, wliich always made him a central 
figure, his magnificent voice, his powers of keen and 
quick repartee, he soon become recognized as one of the 
leading debaters in Congress. His support was welcomed 
bj^ those with whom he agreed and feared by those whom 
he opposed. During the 10 years of his service in the 
House his personality was so impressed upon the people 
of Kentucky and his ability was so universally recognized 
that he was elected to the Senate practically without op- 
position, and while his service in the House had been 
marked by a constant growth in experience and broaden- 
ing of vision I think it may be truthfully said that liis 
greatest services to democracy and to the Nation were 
rendered as a Member of the United States Senate. 

In the Democratic convention which met in Baltimore 
in 1912 Mr. James favored the nomination of Champ 
Clark for President. He had been largely instrumental 
in swinging Kentucky into line for Speaker Clark. While 
this was well known by all the opposing candidates, such 
was the esteem in which he was held by them that he was 
made the permanent chairman of the convention. This 
convention ultimately nominated Woodrow Wilson for 
President, and from that time until the day of his death 
no President and no administration ever received more 
constant or unswerving support Uian President Wilson 
received from Ollie James. He became not only his 
trusted spokesman on the floor of the Senate but his ad- 
viser in many matters of which the public did not always 
hear, and his advice and counsel were always held in 
great esteem by the President. 

His last public appearance in the Senate was in response 
to what he believed to be his duty, when the President and 
the whole Government were viciously attacked in regard 
to the conduct of the war, around which revolved our 
hopes as a Nation, if not the welfare of civilization itself. 
[98] 



Address of Mr. Bahkley, ok Kenticky 

While others might seek to destroy the people's confldence 
in their chosen leaders in a great crisis, he chose to hold 
aloft the banner of his country. While others might seek 
for selOsh and political purposes to tear down the mirac- 
idous achievements of a peace-loving Nation called to 
arms, he chose to uphold the President in his great task 
as leader of a free Nation and Commander in Chief of its 
Army and Na^•>'. This speech was one of the greatest of 
his career. It revealed him more clearly than ever, not 
as a politician, nor as a self-seeker after the plaudits of 
the moment, but as a statesman, a patriot of vision and 
imagination in whose heart burned the fires of devotion 
to the ideals for which millions were ready to die. 

During the nearly 16 years in which Ollie James was a 
Member of the House and Senate he never forgot whom 
lie was sent here to serve. He knew that he was elected 
by the people to represent them and their interests. He 
knew that the people had confidence in him, and he knew, 
as all men knew, that he would never knowingly violate 
that confidence nor betray their interests. Neither the 
temptations of wealth nor the seductive voice of flattery 
could wean him from his interest in the common man; 
and I have seen his indignation rise like a menacing storm 
when he discovered the sti'ong and powerful seeking to 
fasten some form of injustice upon the poor and the weak. 
It is not strange that he was the idol of the rank and file 
of his party in Kentucky and the Nation. He was their 
friend. He represented them whenever they needed a 
spokesman or defender. 

He looked beyond the domes of capitols, beyond the 
surging pit of selfish, grasping greed, which sought special 
favors not enjoyed by all, and saw the force and caught 
the inspiration of what President Wilson so recently 
described as "The strong tide running in the hearts of 

men." 

[99] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

Kentucky has throughout her history been known as the 
home of statesmen and orators. Not only has she sent to 
the forimi of national life a long and illustrious list of 
great men; she has poured her rich blood into everj' State 
of the Union. History, tradition, and romance have 
mingled to make the true Kentuckian a little different 
from other tj'pes of men. Mental and physical courage, 
chivalry, a strong sense of justice, pride in ancestry, and 
love of native land have combined to form in that fair 
State the nearest approximation of the typical man. His- 
torians have wondered at and sought to explain the mys- 
lerj' which seems to be fused from soil and air and stream 
and sky into the men and women of our State. But we 
need not tarry long in attempting to analyze it. The in- 
spiration of such a history, of such romantic traditions, of 
such sacrifices, of such devotion to the highest ideals of 
our race, of such beauty of face and character and land- 
scape, sweeps us on and up toward the goal of human 
perfection. The life stories of her great men and women 
accumulate to enrich the experience and inspire the hopes 
of each succeeding generation; and each generation adds 
its towering figure to shed light upon the groping footsteps 
of the next. Such a figure was Ollie James. 

Among all the names which have made Kentucky a 
household word throughout the Nation none could catch 
with more unerring judgment the throbbing heart of the 
masses. He knew the people, because he had grown up 
with them and had endured with them and shared their 
hardships. His heart was big and full in sympathy with 
them. 

And this trait, Mr. Speaker, is one that lingers in our 
memory when we think of Mr. James. We can not forget 
his bigness of heart. In his sympathies he was as tender 
as a woman. He never became calloused to the griefs 
and sorrows of humanity. I stood with him once at 
[100] 



Address of Mr. Barkley. of Kenticky 

the railroad station in Lexington when a poor woman 
alighted from the train in mourning and in tears. Senator 
James looked on for a moment, then turned to me, with 
tears in his own eyes, and said, " Isn't it terrible to see a 
woman weep like that?" This touch of humanity soft- 
ened and sweetened his outlook upon life and drew to him 
a host of devoted and admiring friends. 

So, whether we measure hini as statesman, as lawj'er, as 
citizen, as son, brother, husband, or friend, he measured 
up to the full stature of greatness. His name will be en- 
twined in the deepening memory of the people of his na- 
tive State; and when men foregather to dwell upon the 
richness and fragrance of our historic men and traditions 
their minds will turn to the name of Ollie James. He will 
be missed in the Senate; he will be missed in Washington, 
where even,' man, woman, and child knew him by sight; 
he will be missed in national conventions, where liis voice 
and figure inspired the enthusiasm of delegates; he will 
be missed on the stump in Kentucky and throughout the 
Nation; he will be missed in the councils of his party, 
where his judgment and wisdom were acknowledged. 
He will be missed in the great Gibraltar district of west 
Kcntuckj', which he honored and which delighted to 
honor him. He will be missed in many a courthouse in 
Kentucky, where anxious and enthusiastic crowds surged 
and clamored to hear his voice. He will be missed in the 
hearts of all who knew and loved him. We honor his 
memory, and thus we honor ourselves. We honor him 
as statesman, as citizen, as friend. We honor him for 
his great gifts of mind; l)ut we honor him more for his 
great gifts of heart. We honor him for his work as legis- 
lator and orator; but we honor him more for the knowl- 
edge that he held firm to the principles instilled into his 
heart at his mother's knee, which made him incorruptible 
in ever>' relationship of life. We honor him as public 

[101] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

servant and as man. Nature will soon carpet his grave 
with green and loving hands will journey there to lay 
sweet flowers upon it. But in our hearts his niemorj' will 
live forever fresh and sweet, until the trumpets shall call 
us to the shores of that land beyond the stars. 

A man, 

Too little to count in the plan, 

I do my destiny day by day, 

I live my life and I go my way, 

And what does it matter? And yet — and yet — 

The child or the deed which I beget 

May alter the course of human history. 

A man? Ah, yes; but a mystery. 

A man, 

A being of briefest span. 

Just one of the myriad millions spawned 

Who have fluttered a moment and swept beyond 

Into seeming nothingness. Yet, ah, yet. 

Some word I may utter and half forget 

May echo along to eternity's portal. 

A man? But perhaps an immortal. 

A man. 

Whose race, since time began. 

Nadir to zenith and brink to brink, 

Is hardly more than the hasty wink 

Of a deity's eyelid. And yet — and yet — 

In this infinitesimal self is set 

This boundless thought we have called infinity. 

A man? But why not a divinity? 

And as we think about the passing of Senator James at 
the noontide of his life we can but recall that beautiful 
stanza in the poem " Crossing the Bar " : 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

^^^len I embark; 
For tho' from out this bourne of time and place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 

When I have crost the bar. 
[102] 



Address of Mk. Aistin, of Tennessee 

Mr. Speaker : We are here to eulogize one of Kentucky's 
great sons, Ollie M. James, for 10 years an active, useful, 
and influential Democratic leader in this House until a 
grateful people rewarded him by an election to the United 
States Senate, where he won by zeal, ability, and worth 
high rank as a leader among leaders. 

Those of us who observed his conduct as a Member of 
the House of Representatives willinglj' bear testimony to 
his unceasing devotion to the interests of his constituents, 
his usefulness in promoting beneficial legislation for the 
Nation, and his influence and power as a popular leader. 

In debate he was able, eloquent, and convincing; a 
strong partisan, but a fair and manly opponent; a political 
gladiator, who fought in the open, scorning to take an un- 
fair advantage and never asking for quarter; a believer in 
everj'thing Democracy stood for, but, above party fealty, 
he was first, last, and all the time an American. He was 
genial, whole-souled, and generous. He was as true as 
steel to his friends, and they were countless in both politi- 
cal parties. His fame was not confined to his beloved 
State, for he was known and admired throughout the Re- 
public. His eloquent voice was heard North and South in 
national campaigns, and his attendance for years at 
Democratic national conventions brouglit him in touch 
with the leaders of his i)arfy from every State in the 
Union. 

In and out of Congress his political advice was sought 
and followed, and his death was a great loss to the party 
he delighted to honor and to serve. 

lie- was the idol of the Kentucky Democracy, and his 
hold upon the loyalty and affections of the people was 
never broken. The people believed in him. They had 
[103] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

reasons for trusting him. They had unwavering confi- 
dence in his sincerity, his honesty, his courage, and his 
leadership. They followed him with the same fidelity, 
loyalty, and enthusiasm as the people of Kentucky had in 
former years followed their great " Harry of the West " — 
Henry Clay. 

In everj' position of trust and responsibility, in private 
and public life, Senator James did his duty — his full duty. 
His career was one of usefulness — unselfishness — and liis 
busy life full of private and public deeds which will be 
remembered and cherished. 

We were from adjoining sister States, which have much 
in common, and during our joint service in this body were 
personal friends. While we were not in political accord, 
I admired Senator James for his many noble qualities; for 
his open, frank, manly methods; for alwajs having the 
courage of his convictions; for his great ability; for his 
untiring work for his district and State; for his fair and 
courteous conduct toward his political opponents; for his 
fealty to party pledges; for his loyalty to the Republic, and 
for his love for and tenderness to his devoted wife. 

Mr. Speaker, a Tennessee friend offers this brief but 
heartfelt tribute of respect to the memory of Ollie M. 
James, the brave, generous, and knightly son Kentucky 
gave the Republic, to whose interest he was ever loyal and 
devoted. 



[104] 



Address of Mr. Cantrill, of Kentucky 

Mr. Speaker: When the angel of death took the hand 
of Ollie James to lead him into the great unknown the 
State of Kentucky bade farewell to her most illustrious 
and beloved son and our Nation lost one of her noblest 
and most patriotic servants. 

No word spoken here to-day can add anything to tlie 
fame of Ollie M. James, of Kentucky. His place is secure 
in the historj' of our Nation and his meniorj' will be 
forever cherished in the hearts of our countrj-men. 

That death loves a shining mark is forcibly illustrated 
in the early passing of Senator James. Struck down by 
disease and death at the age of 47, yet he had attained a 
reputation of national scope and was beloved and trusted 
by millions of his fellow citizens throughout the length 
and breadth of our great Republic. To be known, hon- 
ored, and loved so universally at such an age could mean 
but one thing, and that was that he was a man of unusual 
ability and of great force of character. To be loved as 
Senator James was loved by the American people means 
that he had in his big heart love of the noblest type for 
his country and for humanitj\ No man can be genuinely 
loved by his people unless the people know and realize his 
genuine love for them and their interests. In my opinion, 
the greatest trait in the character of Senator James was 
his love for his fellow men and his earnest desire at all 
times to help them onward and upward. 

During the last year of his life I have seen him drag 
himself to the departments here at Washington to speak 
a word for his friends in trouble — time after time — -when 
it was evident that deadly disease had fastened on him 
and that his prime duty was to himself. Yet, in disease, 
he forgot himself, and was always ready and anxious to 

[105] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

help others. His heart was so big that there was always 
a place for the one in trouble, whether friend or stranger. 
Well do I remember seeing the tears stream down his 
cheeks when appealing for help for one who had been 
his loyal friend. Kind of heart as a child yet possessing 
the courage of a lion to defend his convictions against all 
comers — and with what great eloquence did he speak 
his thoughts and convictions. His was the eloquence 
which swept all before it and brought multitudes to their 
feet as he pleaded his cause with logic and power of 
speech that could not be resisted. And be it said always 
that his power as an orator was used in protecting the 
interests of the great common people of his country, who 
by the millions looked to him as their champion in times 
of stress. 

No man in the American Congress during the last 10 
years could hold the attention of his colleagues or of the 
country by his spoken word and magnetic power as closely 
as did Senator James. Read his speeches during his terms 
in the House of Representatives and his term in the Senate 
and you will always find an earnest and eloquent plea for 
the oppressed or a patriotic appeal for the safety and 
betterment of his country. His mind and heart were too 
big for litUe things, and when he spoke the Nation lis- 
tened. During his service in the House and Senate Sena- 
tor James was ever recognized as the spokesman of his 
party when great questions of partj' policy were debated, 
and when his countrj' was assailed party friend and party 
foe alike looked to him as their leader to voice their senti- 
ments with his characteristic force and natural eloquence, 
and never once in his career as a public servant did he 
fail those who believed in liim. 

When Ollie James died the poor and oppressed of the 
land lost their greatest champion. When he passed over 
the river thousands of homes in this great land of ours 
[106] 



Address of Mr. Cantrill, of Kentucky 

felt that a personal loss had befallen them, and the fu- 
neral train as it sped to his home in Kentucky was met at 
everj' station by hundreds and thousands with tears and 
sympathy. At one station hundreds of miles away from 
his old home a working woman crowded her way through 
the crowd and, placing a small coin in the hands of one 
of the Senator's friends, requested that he buy a flower 
and. place it on the grave when the body of the great 
statesman was laid away in the soil that gave him birth. 
A tribute like this from a working woman in a distant 
Stale would have been prized by Senator James more than 
tributes from kings and potentates, and this humble 
woman's tribute to his memorj* was more eloquent and 
spoke in greater volume for his great career as a states- 
man and champion of human rights than we can speak 
here to-day. 

During the ten years that Ollie James served in the 
House of Representatives and his six years in the Senate he 
was assigned to the highest places of leadership and states- 
manship, and never a single time did he fail to measure 
up to the expectations of his friends and of the patriotic 
citizens of his countrj". As he lay on his sick bed he was 
given an overwhelming vote of confidence by his party 
in Kentucky for its leadership for another six years in 
the Senate. What a calamity for his native State and his 
countrj' that death did not permit him to carry out the 
wishes of his friends and admirers. 

Shortly after the election in 1916 I called a conference 
of some of his friends at Louisville, at which Senator 
James was present, and suggested that wc form an or- 
ganization to present his name at the proper time to the 
country as a candidate for President in 1920. The plan 
was rejected by Senator James over the protest of his 
friends, but I believed then, and believe now, that had he 
permitted us to have carried out our plans that in the next 
[107] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

election, had he lived, he would have been looked on with 
favor as the standard bearer of our party. Having been 
the spokesman of his party in the last two national con- 
ventions, where is the man in the Nation to-day who could 
have had a greater claim to the confidence and love and 
trust of the American people? 

All who knew Senator James loved and trusted him. 
That love was never betrayed and that trust was never 
misplaced. Beginning early in life a public career, as the 
years swiftly passed new honors were rapidly conferred 
on him, and rapidly his fame grew from that of the idol of 
his party in his native State to the trusted leader and 
spokesman of his party in the Nation. 

We are proud that Kentucky gave him to the Nation. 
His last speech was a wonderful oration, defending the 
honor of his country and worthy of the greatest traditions 
of that glorious flag of our beloved country. 

The body of Ollie M. James lies in the soil of the country 
in the old Kentucky home which gave him birth, but 
his spirit moves on, inspiring those left behind to higher 
and nobler things. The great and honorable career of 
Senator Ollie M. James will be an incentive to Ken- 
tuckians and Americans yet unborn to labor for the 
highest ideals of democracy and the betterment of hu- 
manity. The devoted wife and the idolizing father and 
brother and sister left behind have the deepest sympathy 
of all who knew and loved Ollie James, and if on this 
occasion they could speak millions of loyal, patriotic 
American citizens would wish them Godspeed. 



[108] 



Address of Mr. Langley, of Kentucky 

Mr. Speaker: In the passing of Ollie James Kentucky 
lost one of its greatest men, his political opponents one of 
their most dangerous antagonists, and the countrj' one of 
its most faithful and efficient puhlic servants. It was my 
pleasure to have known him from our boyhood. He was 
a page in the General Assembly of Kentucky when I was 
dubbed the " kid " of that body, having barely reached 
the constitutional age of eligibility, and a strong friend- 
ship grew up between us then that continued uninter- 
rupted until his death. Many years afterwards, when I 
was a candidate for the lower House of Congress and he 
for the Senate we met in joint debate in one of the moun- 
tain towns of my district. In my reply to his speech I con- 
tended that he was too fat to make an efficient page and 
at the same time admitted that I was too young to make 
an efficient member of the legislature. This humorous 
reference to his abnormal size was enjoyed by no one in 
the audience more than by himself, which illustrated his 
genial, jolly temperament — a characteristic which fol- 
lowed him throughout his life and endeared him to so 
many people. 

It seems but a little while ago when I saw an overgrown 
country boy of magnificent proportions toddling up and 
down the aisles of the old assembly hall at Frankfort, and 
yet when I take a retrospect of all the busy years that have 
followed I realize how. rapidly the wheels of Time are 
turning. I recall that even while Ollie James was a page 
he displayed those qualities that afterwards made him a 
leader of men. He organized the pages into a debating 
society, or rather into an organization patterned after 
that of tlie house. Ollie was, of course, elected speaker, 
and he ruled like a real czar. I recall that one of the boys 

[109] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

rcinarkod tliat he was not only speaker but floor leader as 
well. I only mention these incidents in the hope that I 
may, by reason of this personal acquaintance, shed a side- 
light upon some phases of his life and character that his 
other eulogists may not have had the opportunity of learn- 
ing. I served with him for many years in Congress and 
we always worked in harmony for the best interests of 
Kentuck}' in all local matters. We differed very radically 
along political lines, but we never forgot the memories 
of our early friendship. While he was intensely partisan 
he had a mentality and a heart in keeping with his mag- 
nificent physique and the generosity of his nature largely 
overshadowed the intensitj' of his political tendencies. 

As a Member of the lower House 1 do not know quite so 
much of his service in the Senate except that it was of a 
most conspicuous character, commanding the attention of 
the entire country. He told me once in private conversa- 
tion that he declined the nomination for the Vice Presi- 
dencj' and refused to permit the use of his name for the 
presidential nomination. I believe, however, that had he 
lived he would have been named by his part}' as its can- 
didate for the Presidency. 

I am sure I shall be pardoned for another personal 
reminiscence. Mrs. Langley and I made a trip with Sen- 
ator and Mrs. James to the Hawaiian Islands some years 
ago. While I knew his power as an orator, politician, and 
statesman, 1 had not had an earlier opportunity to know 
so much of the personal side of his home life. His gal- 
lantry and devotion to Mrs. James, one of Kentucky's most 
beautiful women, will be one of my lasting memories of 
him. To the end of his life he bore an outward geniality 
seeming to seek to dispel the fear of his friends as to the 
seriousness of his illness, and it may be truly said of him 
that he heeded that admonition — 



[110] 



Address of Mk. Langley, of Kenti cky 

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 

Old Time is still a-flying. 
And this same flower that smiles to-day 

To-morrow will be dying. 

In closing this brief tribute to my friend I want to say 
that his taking off, a good many years before his natural 
time, leaves many people in many walks of life, especially 
his constituency of the Old Commonwealth and his col- 
leagues in Congress, deeply giicvcd for the loss of him. 



rill] 



Address of Mr. Fields, of Kentucky 

Mr. Speaker : It is appropriate that we assemble here on 
this Sabbath day out of respect for and to commemorate 
the public service of Ollie M. James, late a Senator from 
Kentucky; but nothing that we can say will add to the 
splendid record which he made for himself as a public 
servant and statesman. 

Mr. James was brought up in western Kentucky and first 
attracted the attention of the State as a page in the Ken- 
tucky Legislature when a mere lad. 

During the session of the legislature in which he served 
as a page it was learned that he possessed the ability to 
speak, and members of that body amused themselves by 
assembling in the hall of the house of representatives each 
day, or frequently, 30 minutes before the convening of the 
session to have him address them, the privilege to do so 
being granted to him by consent of the members and the 
house officials. And in those speeches he convinced all 
who heard him that he possessed natural ability as an 
orator, that he was full of courage and fairly ablaze with 
enthusiasm and possessed the qualities of leadership, 
which elements destined him to be a great man and a 
great leader among men. 

By the time he had reached the age of 25 he was recog- 
nized throughout Kentuckj'^ as one of the State's greatest 
lawyers, its greatest speaker, and as his party's champion. 

At the age of 31 he was nominated by the Democrats of 
the first congressional district of Kentucky and elected to 
Congress. His election, however, was not regarded as 
the victory of the first district alone, but as the victorj' of 
his party throughout the State, for at that age he had 
spoken throughout Kentucky from the Mississippi to the 
Big Sandy and from the Ohio River to the Tennessee line 
[112] 



Address of Mr. Fields, of Kenticky 

and was, therefore, acquainkd with the entire State and 
was idolized by his own party and respected by his po- 
litical opponents for his ability and courage. 

In Congress he soon became a leader and a national fig- 
ure. He wielded a dominating influence in the organiza- 
tion of the Sixty-second Congress and was a leader in 
the measures enacted during that Congress. He retired 
from the House at the end of the Sixty-second Congress 
to enter the United States Senate, where he was again 
recognized as a leader and where he was from the be- 
ginning the, champion of the policies and measures of the 
national administration. 

Time will not permit me to recount or refer to many of 
his achievements, but it is sufficient to say that the fact 
that he was chosen to preside over the Democratic na- 
tional presidential conventions of 1912 and 1916 is conclu- 
sive of the high esteem in which he was held by his 
countrj-men. And, Mr. Speaker, I pause here to say that 
had he lived he in all probability' would have been the 
nominee of the next presidential convention of his party 
instead of its presiding ofTiccr, but, alas, the hand of death 
levied its toll upon him, and the spirit which made him 
great returned to the God who gave it. 

Ollie M. James was .a man of superior mental and phys- 
ical strength and stem in his dealings with competing 
forces, but tender-hearted and sympathetic in his deal- 
ings with those who needed assistance and apparently 
never as happy as when administering to the needs of 
those who were unable to care for themselves. 

He was a hard student of national and international 
questions, but along with these duties it was remarkable 
how closely he looked after matters of detail. He was 
always ready to give such time as was necessarj' to con- 
stituents and friends whose interests needed his attention 
in the various departments of the Government, and the 

llSOfiS'— 20 8 [113] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

success of his friends in matters of that kind always made 
him happy. 

Mr. Speaker, I shall never forget the last time I ever 
accompanied him on a departmental errand. It was the 
day before his mother's death, which occurred only a few 
months before his death. On that occasion I accompanied 
him to the Department of Justice in the interest of a con- 
stituent in whom we both were interested. As soon as I 
met him I observed that he was not normal, but that he 
was apparently greatly disturbed. I had been with him 
but a few minutes when he told me that he was greatly 
worried; said he had dreamed the night before that his 
mother was dangerously ill, and that the family had wired 
him to huri-y to her bedside. " The dream," he continued, 
" woke me, and I could not go to sleep again, as a result of 
which I had an early breakfast and went to my office 
earlier than usual, trying all the time to dismiss and for- 
get the dream that I had had, as I had no word that my 
mother was ill. But soon after my arrival at the office my 
wife called me by phone and informed me that she had 
received a telegram to me from my sister stating that 
mother was dangerously ill and for me to come at once." 
He, with Mrs. James, left for Kentucky on the first train at 
2 o'clock that afternoon. I accompanied them as far as 
my home town in Kentucky and talked with him a goodly 
portion of the afternoon and evening, and manj' times 
during our conversations he referred to his dream of the 
night previous, wliich seemed to impress him that liis 
mother would not recover, and that he would not reach 
her bedside before death laid its claim upon her. I read 
in the Louisville papers the next evening that a telegram 
had been delivered to him by the conductor in charge of 
the train announcing the death of his mother. He was 
hurrjang to her bedside, but the guardian angel with his 



[114] 



Address of Mr. Fields, of Kentucky 

" steeds of wind and chariot of fire " preceded him to the 
old lionie and bade her go before liis arrival. 

He was then in the prime of life, the vigor of manhood, 
and apparently in the best of health, and little did I think 
that my next journey to Kentucky would be to accompany 
his remains to their last resting place. But who can 
prophesy against death or foretell its coming, even to the 
strong and vigorous? 

His death, his going, in what seemed to be the middle of 
an unexcelled career cast a gloom ovfcr the Nation and 
filled the hearts of the men, women, and cliildren of his 
native Slate with sorrow and sadness. 

After the funeral train which bore his remains and the 
funeral parly crossed the Kentucky line at the Big Sandy 
River it was met by vast crowds at practically every sta- 
tion, hoping and asking for an opportunity to look once 
more upon the face of him who until a few hours before 
had been for many years Kentucky's foremost citizen. 
There was strong contention from every crowd, from 
everj'where, that his remains should be interred in the 
State cemeterj' at Frankfort, that the State might continue 
to claim all that was left of him. With that contention I 
did not agree. He had served his State and the Nation, 
and served them well; but that service having been con- 
cluded, I felt, and now feel, that it was fitting and proper 
that his remains be returned to his family and childhood 
associates, who had first claim upon him, and be laid to 
rest, as they were, at the feet of his mother, who gave him 
to the State and the Nation. But it matters not where rest 
his remains; his memorj' will live in the hearts of the 
people of Kentucky. 



[115] 



Address of Mr. Clark, of Missouri 

Mr. Speaker: Senator Ollie M. James was a masterful 
man. He died while still in the prime of his splendid 
powers— in the very flower of his years. He was a typi- 
cal Kentuckian and was therefore verj' popular in Ken- 
tucky — his native State. Since Henry Clay, John J. Crit- 
tenden, John C. Breckinridge, and John G. Carlisle, he ■ 
was probably the most popular man in Kentucky. Yet 
j'oung as he was, his fame breaking over State lines made 
him a popular national figure. He served in both House 
and Senate and stood in the front rank in both. I heard 
an old farmer say once that no man can be truly denomi- 
nated popular until he was generally called by his Chris- 
tian name. If that be the correct test, Senator James was 
certainly one of the most popular men betwixt the two 
seas which wash our shores. He was rarely spoken of as 
Senator James or even as Mr. James. He was known and 
talked about as " Ollie " James all over the land. Fre- 
quently people left off the James and discoursed about 
and quoted " Ollie." The name " Ollie " seems to have 
differentiated him from all his fellows. On account of 
his vast bulk he was known by sight to eveiybody in 
Washington. As he walked the streets of the finest Capi- 
tal in the world even the urchins would say to each other, 
" There goes Ollie James ! " or " There goes Ollie ! " In a 
certain sense he had become a sort of national institution. 
House and Senate guides say that nearly all the visitors 
and sightseers asked to have Ollie James pointed out to 
them. 

Being born a Kentuckian myself, and most of my 
mother's people having lived and being buried in his con- 
gressional district, when he came into the House I culti- 
vated him and we became fast friends, and I greatly en- 
[116] 



Address of Mr. Clark, of Missofri 



joyed his companionship and highly prized his friendship. 
His friendships were not lukewarm but intense and 
enduring. He was simple as a child and he remained 
to the end a big-hearted boy, although a great Represent- 
ative and a great Senator. 

I am inclined to believe tliat his unusual stature and 
physical niassivcness were valuable assets in his political 
career. 

He was a strong debater and participated in many hot 
verbal contests in both branches of Congress. He was 
neither timid nor half-hearted. There was no trouble to 
discover on which side he was on. He was either wholly 
for a proposition or wholly against. He was an enthusiast 
as to both men and things. He was exceedingly in love 
with the noblest of quadrupeds and " the sport of kings." 
He knew the running record of every horse in America 
worthy of mention. If he had been rich, he would un- 
doubtedly have owned the finest string of horses in Ken- 
tucky, which is sajing a great deal, as Kentucky is the 
home of the running horse, and has been always. Next to 
a splendid man or a beautiful woman Kentuckians love a 
fine horse most of all animated nature. In love and affec- 
tion for a horse Kentuckians rival the Bedouins of the 
desert. That love and affection for the horse remain with 
Kentuckians who expatriate themselves wherever their 
feet may wander or under whatever stars they pitch their 
tents. 

I have already stated that Senator James was a strong 
debater. He was also a most successful stump speaker, 
as stump speaking is still a favorite recreation in Ken- 
tucky. No State in the Union can show a longer roster 
of distinguished stumpers than Kentucky. Of these John C. 
Breckinridge, Mason Brown, Hcnrj' Clay, Cassius i\I. Clay, 
Richard H. Alcnifee, Thomas F. Mar.shall, Edward Mar- 
shall, Humphrey Mar.shall, John J. Crittenden. John Pope, 
[117] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator James 

Archibald Dixon, William C. P. Breckinridge, J. Proctor 
Knott, John Marshall Harlan, John W. Stevenson, James 
B. Beck, John S. Williams, Roger Hanson, Elijah Hise, 
Thomas L. Jones, Leslie Combs, and James A. McKenzie 
are among the most conspicuous. 

In one field of oratory Ollie James was supreme — the 
national convention. There is only one noisier place on 
earth than a national convention — that is a boiler factorj*. 
His Brobdingnagian size and his lion's roar compelled 
botli silence and attention. He spoke in sweeping, all- 
embracing sentences which aroused the convention to 
wildest enthusiasm, which was largely a personal tribute 
to the mighty Kentuckian. He enjoyed national conven- 
tions to the full and was permanent chairman of two of 
them — an exceptional honor and compliment to any man. 
It was no more than he richly deserved, for a more 
thoroughgoing or a more enthusiastic Democrat never 
lived. He made no apologj' for being a partisan, but 
above and beyond all things he was an American, and 
love of country was his master passion. He could see no 
incompatibility in both a partisan and a patriot. He was 
honest in both and gloried in them. Kentucky has lost a 
noble son; the Nation a great citizen. 



[118] 



FROCEEDINr.S IN THE IIOTSE OF ReI'KESENTATIVES 

Mr. Fields. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
my colleague [Mr. Langlcy], who is inevitably detained, 
may have unanimous consent to extend his remarks in 
the Record upon the life of Senator James. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The gentleman asks that his 
colleague [Mr. Langley] be permitted to extend his re- 
marks in the Record on the life of Senator James. Is there 
objection? 

There was no objection. 

Mr. Johnson of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, several of the 
friends of Senator James who wish to pay tribute to his 
memor)' are unavoidably absent at this moment; there- 
fore I ask leave that they may be permitted to extend their 
remarks in the Record. 

The Speaker pro tempore. \S'ithout objection, the re- 
quest of the gentleman will be granted. 

There was no objection. 

Adjournment 

The Speaker pro tempore. In accordance with the order 
heretofore entered, the Chair declares the House ad- 
journed until to-morrow at 11 a. m. 

Accordingly (at 3 o'clock and 30 minutes p. m.) the 
House adjourned until to-morrow, Monday, Februarj' 24, 
1919, at 11 o'clock a. m. 



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